Map-based graphical user interface indicating geospatial activity metrics

ABSTRACT

A server-side administrative interface for a social media platform allows for restriction of defined geographical areas. Social media items originating from such restricted areas are automatically filtered or age-restricted for availability via a map-based graphical user interface of the social media platform.

PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/965,811, filed Apr. 27, 2018, which is a non-provisional applicationwhich claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional ApplicationSer. No. 62/556,134, filed Sep. 8, 2017; U.S. Provisional ApplicationSer. No. 62/552,958, filed Aug. 31, 2017; and U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 62/491,115, filed Apr. 27, 2017, the contents ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

Social media applications implement computer-mediated technologiesallowing for the creating and sharing of content that communicatesinformation, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression viavirtual communities and networks. Social media platforms use web-basedtechnologies, desktop computers, and mobile technologies (e.g., smartphones and tablet computers) to create highly interactive platformsthrough which individuals, communities, and organizations can share,co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content or pre-madecontent posted online.

Mobile electronic devices on which end-user social media applicationscan be executed typically provide geolocation services that determinethe geographic location of the mobile electronic device, by extensionindicating the geographic location of the associated user. Social mediacontent posted by users is often geo-tagged based on the geolocation ofa mobile electronic device (such as a mobile phone) by use of which thesocial media content is captured and/or posted to the social mediaplatform. In other embodiments, social media content may explicitly begeo-tagged by a user using a computer device that does not haveactivated geolocation services and/or that is not a mobile device (suchas a desktop PC).

In many social media platforms, the total number of individual socialmedia items that are available for viewing by any particular user can bevery large. Search mechanisms that enable users to locate social mediacontent that may be of interest to them can consume significantserver-side resources and often provide less than satisfactory searchresults.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some aspects of the disclosure are illustrated in the appended drawings.Note that the appended drawings illustrate example embodiments of thepresent disclosure and cannot be considered as limiting the scope of thedisclosure.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example social media platformsystem for exchanging, posting, and consuming social media data (e.g.,messages and associated content) over a network.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating further details regarding asocial media platform system, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating data which may be stored in adatabase of the social media platform system, according to certainexample embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a message,according to some embodiments, generated by a social media clientapplication according to example embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example access-limitingprocess, in terms of which access to content (e.g., an ephemeralmessage, and associated multimedia payload of data) or a contentcollection (e.g., an ephemeral message gallery or story) may betime-limited (e.g., made ephemeral).

FIGS. 6A and 6B are respective schematic views of a client deviceproviding a map-based graphical user interface for a social mediaapplication, according to different respective example embodiments.

FIGS. 7A-7C are respective schematic views of a client device providinga destination selection interface forming part of a map-based graphicaluser interface for a social media application, according to some exampleembodiments.

FIGS. 8A-8C are respective screenshots of a map-based graphical userinterface, providing features relating to display of user icons in a mapforming part of the interface, according to an example embodiment.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are respective screenshots of the functionalities of amap-based graphical user interface that provides access to a chatinterface and to friend content via a friend icon displayed as part ofthe map, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 10A-10D are a series of screenshots of search interfaces providedas part of a map-based graphical user interface, according to respectiveexample embodiments.

FIGS. 11A-11B are a series of schematic screenshots illustrating alocation-based search mechanism provided by a map-based graphical userinterface, according to one example embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a schematic view of a server system for providing a socialmedia platform service, according to an example embodiment.

FIGS. 13A and 13B are screenshots of an administrative interface,according to an example embodiment

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a method for restricting social media activityfrom surfacing on a social media platform by geography, according to anexample embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a schematic flowchart of a method of providing for variablecatchment intervals for social media items by geography, according to anexample embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example embodiment of a methodfor automated estimation of social media item quality.

FIGS. 17A-17D is a series alternative schemes for training a neuralnetwork to perform automated quality assessment of social media items,according to an example embodiment.

FIGS. 18A-18B shows a labeling scheme for training a neural network,according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating a method of accessing expiredephemeral items on a social media platform, according to an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 20 is a schematic view of a social media platform system forproviding a map-based graphical user interface for a social mediaapplication, according to one example embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating a representative softwarearchitecture, which may be used in conjunction with various hardwarearchitectures herein described.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine,according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) andperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The headings provided herein are merely for convenience and do notnecessarily affect the scope or meaning of the terms used.

DESCRIPTION

One aspect of the disclosure provides a geographical map-based graphicaluser interface (GUI) for a social media platform or application, toallow user access via the map-based GUI to ephemeral social mediacontent. Such an interface is also referred to herein as a “map GUI.”

As will be described in greater detail below, ephemeral social mediacontent comprises social media items that are available for viewing viathe social media application for only a limited period. For example, anephemeral social media item or message (also referred to herein as a“snap”) submitted by a user to the social media application may beavailable for viewing by other users via the map GUI of the social mediaapplication for only a predefined period subsequent to submission. Inone example embodiment, each ephemeral item or snap has an availabilitylifetime (also referred to herein as a “gallery participation timer”) of24 hours after submission, after which the ephemeral item “disappears”and is no longer available for viewing by other users via the map GUI.Such ephemeral social media items (also referred to herein as ephemeralmessages) typically comprise photographic or video content, which may besubmitted with or without augmentations made by the user to theunderlying photographic or video content.

Ephemeral messages submitted by multiple different users may beavailable on a map forming part of the map GUI based at least in part onrespective location information (e.g., geotag information) of theephemeral messages. In some embodiments, the map GUI may providelocation-based access to one or more collections of ephemeral socialmedia items (also known as and referred to herein as galleries or“stories”). In some example embodiments, a plurality of ephemeralmessages submitted by different users are included in a commongeo-anchored gallery or story based at least in part on respectivegeotagging information of the plurality of ephemeral messages. Such alocation-based gallery or story is in some embodiments represented onthe map GUI by a respective gallery icon displayed at a correspondingmap location, the gallery icon being selectable by the user to triggerautomated sequential display of the plurality of ephemeral messages inthe gallery on the user device on which the map GUI is rendered.

These and additional aspects of the disclosure will be described belowwith reference to specific example embodiments. First, platformarchitecture and a technical background to implementation of the variousembodiments will be described with reference to FIGS. 1-5 . Thereafter,specific example embodiments are described with reference to FIGS. 6A-20. FIGS. 21-22 finally describe aspects of software and hardwarecomponents that are in some instances used in the implementation of thedescribed example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The description that follows includes systems, methods, devices,techniques, instruction sequences, and computing machine programproducts that embody illustrative embodiments of the disclosure. In thefollowing description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide an understanding ofvarious embodiments of the inventive subject matter. It will be evident,however, to those skilled in the art, that embodiments of the disclosedsubject matter may be practiced without these specific details. Ingeneral, well-known instruction instances, protocols, structures, andtechniques are not necessarily shown in detail.

System Architecture and Operating Environment

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example social media platformsystem 100 for exchanging data (e.g., social media items or messages andassociated content) over a network. In this description, itemscommunicated from one user to one or more other users via a social mediaapplication or platform, as well as items uploaded or provided by usersto a social media application or platform for availability to orconsumption by other users via the social media application or platform,are referred to as “messages.” Thus, the term “messages” as used hereinis not limited to communications from one user to specified recipientusers, but includes messages made available for public consumption viathe relevant social media platform.

The social media platform system 100 includes multiple client devices102, each of which hosts a number of applications including a socialmedia client application 104. Each social media client application 104is communicatively coupled to other instances of the social media clientapplication 104 and a social media application server system 108 via anetwork 106 (e.g., the Internet).

Accordingly, each social media client application 104 is able tocommunicate and exchange data with another social media clientapplication 104 and with the social media application server system 108via the network 106. The data exchanged between social media clientapplications 104, and between a social media client application 104 andthe social media application server system 108, includes functions(e.g., commands to invoke functions) as well as payload data (e.g.,text, audio, video, or other multimedia data).

The social media application server system 108 provides server-sidefunctionality via the network 106 to a particular social media clientapplication 104. While certain functions of the social media platformsystem 100 are described herein as being performed by either a socialmedia client application 104 or by the social media application serversystem 108, it will be appreciated that the location of certainfunctionality either within the social media client application 104 orthe social media application server system 108 is a design choice. Forexample, it may be technically expedient to initially deploy certaintechnology and functionality within the social media application serversystem 108, but to later migrate this technology and functionality tothe social media client application 104 where a client device 102 has asufficient processing capacity.

The social media application server system 108 supports various servicesand operations that are provided to the social media client application104. Such operations include transmitting data to, receiving data from,and processing data generated by the social media client application104. This data may include message content, client device information,geolocation information, media annotations and overlays, message contentpersistence conditions, social network information, and live eventinformation, as examples. Data exchanges within the social mediaplatform system 100 are invoked and controlled through functionsavailable via user interfaces (UIs) of the social media clientapplication 104.

Turning now specifically to the social media application server system108, an application programming interface (API) server 110 is coupledto, and provides a programmatic interface to, an application server 112.The application server 112 is communicatively coupled to a databaseserver 118, which facilitates access to a database 120 in which isstored data associated with messages processed by the application server112.

Dealing specifically with the API server 110, this server receives andtransmits message data (e.g., commands and message payloads) between theclient device 102 and the application server 112. Specifically, the APIserver 110 provides a set of interfaces (e.g., routines and protocols)that can be called or queried by the social media client application 104in order to invoke functionality of the application server 112. The APIserver 110 exposes various functions supported by the application server112, including account registration; login functionality; the sending ofmessages, via the application server 112, from a particular social mediaclient application 104 to another social media client application 104;the sending of media files (e.g., images or video) from a social mediaclient application 104 to a social media server application 114, forpossible access by another social media client application 104; thesetting of a collection of media data (e.g., a story or gallery); theretrieval of such collections; the retrieval of a list of friends of auser of a client device 102; the retrieval of messages and content; theadding and deletion of friends to and from a social graph; the locationof friends within a social graph; opening an application event (e.g.,relating to the social media client application 104); and so forth.

The application server 112 hosts a number of applications andsubsystems, including the social media server application 114, an imageprocessing system 116, and a social network system 122. The social mediaserver application 114 implements a number of message processingtechnologies and functions, particularly related to the aggregation andother processing of content (e.g., textual and multimedia content)included in messages received from multiple instances of the socialmedia client application 104. As will be described in further detail,the text and media content from multiple sources may be aggregated intocollections of content (e.g., called “stories” or “galleries”). Thesecollections are then made available, by the social media serverapplication 114, to the social media client application 104. Otherprocessor- and memory-intensive processing of data may also be performedserver-side by the social media server application 114, in view of thehardware requirements for such processing.

The application server 112 also includes the image processing system116, which is dedicated to performing various image processingoperations, typically with respect to images or video received withinthe payload of a message at the social media server application 114.

The social network system 122 supports various social networkingfunctions and services, and makes these functions and services availableto the social media server application 114. To this end, the socialnetwork system 122 maintains and accesses an entity graph 304 (describedbelow with reference to FIG. 3 ) within the database 120. Examples offunctions and services supported by the social network system 122include the identification of other users of the social media platformsystem 100 with whom a particular user has relationships or whom theparticular user is “following,” and also the identification of otherattributes and interests of a particular user. In some embodiments, thesocial network system 122 includes an identification of other userswhose location is available for viewing by a particular user via amap-based GUI displayable on a client device 102 using the correspondingsocial media client application 104.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating further details regarding thesocial media platform system 100, according to example embodiments.Specifically, the social media platform system 100 is shown to comprisethe social media client application 104 and the application server 112,which in turn embody a number of some subsystems, namely an ephemeraltimer system 202, a collection management system 204, and an annotationsystem 206.

The ephemeral timer system 202 is responsible for enforcing thetemporary access to content permitted by the social media clientapplication 104 and the social media server application 114. To thisend, the ephemeral timer system 202 incorporates a number of timersthat, based on duration and display parameters associated with amessage, or collection/gallery of messages (e.g., a SNAPCHAT story),selectively display and enable access to messages and associated contentvia the social media client application 104. Further details regardingthe operation of the ephemeral timer system 202 are provided below.

The collection management system 204 is responsible for managingcollections of media (e.g., collections of text, image, video, and audiodata). In some examples, a collection of content (e.g., messages,including images, video, text, and audio) may be organized into an“event gallery” or an “event story.” Such a collection may be madeavailable for a specified time period, such as the duration of an eventto which the content relates, or until expiry of a last message or snapin the gallery. For example, content relating to a music concert may bemade available as a “story” for the duration of that music concert. Thecollection management system 204 may also be responsible for publishingan icon that provides notification of the existence of a particularcollection to the user interface of the social media client application104. As will be described in greater detail with reference to thespecific example embodiments that follow, the collection managementsystem 204 may also be responsible for compiling and managing multiplelocation-based social media galleries based at least in part on geo-tagdata of social media items or messages uploaded to the social mediaplatform by multiple users. Other types of galleries that may beprovided by the collection management system 204 include a “place story”that collects ephemeral messages having geotag data indicating alocation within a predefined associated geographical area; and an ad-hocstory or spike story that is dynamically surfaced on a map GUI asdescribed herein based on underlying location-based social mediaactivity, e.g., based on geo-temporal volume or anomality/unusualness ofsocial media items submitted by users for public consumption (e.g., forinclusion in a “Live Story” or “Our Story”). With “anomality” is meantis metric indicating a how anomalous something is.

The collection management system 204 furthermore includes a curationinterface 208 that allows a human operator (e.g., a collection manager)to manage and curate a particular collection of content. For example,the curation interface 208 enables an event organizer to curate acollection of content relating to a specific event (e.g., to deleteinappropriate content or redundant messages). Instead, or in addition,the collection management system 204 may employ machine vision (or imagerecognition technology), geotag data, and/or content rules toautomatically compile and/or curate a content collection. In certainembodiments, compensation may be paid to a user for inclusion ofuser-generated content into a collection. In such cases, the curationinterface 208 operates to automatically make payments to such users forthe use of their content.

The annotation system 206 provides various functions that enable a userto annotate or otherwise augment, modify, or edit media contentassociated with a message. For example, the annotation system 206provides functions related to the generation and publishing of mediaoverlays for messages processed by the social media platform system 100.The annotation system 206 operatively supplies a media overlay (e.g., aSNAPCHAT filter) to the social media client application 104 based on ageolocation of the client device 102. In another example, the annotationsystem 206 operatively supplies a media overlay to the social mediaclient application 104 based on other information, such as socialnetwork information of the user of the client device 102. A mediaoverlay may include audio and visual content and visual effects.Examples of audio and visual content include pictures, texts, logos,animations, and sound effects. An example of a visual effect includescolor overlaying. The audio and visual content or the visual effects canbe applied to a media content item (e.g., a photo) at the client device102. For example, the media overlay includes text that can be overlaidon top of a photograph taken by the client device 102. In anotherexample, the media overlay includes an identification of a locationoverlay (e.g., Venice Beach), a name of a live event, or a name of amerchant overlay (e.g., Beach Coffee House). In another example, theannotation system 206 uses the geolocation of the client device 102 toidentify a media overlay that includes the name of a merchant at thegeolocation of the client device 102. The media overlay may includeother indicia associated with the merchant. The media overlays may bestored in the database 120 and accessed through the database server 118.

In one example embodiment, the annotation system 206 provides auser-based publication platform that enables users to select ageolocation on a map, and upload content associated with the selectedgeolocation. The user may also specify circumstances under which aparticular media overlay should be offered to other users. Theannotation system 206 generates a media overlay that includes theuploaded content and associates the uploaded content with the selectedgeolocation.

In another example embodiment, the annotation system 206 provides amerchant-based publication platform that enables merchants to select aparticular media overlay associated with a geolocation via a biddingprocess. For example, the annotation system 206 associates the mediaoverlay of a highest-bidding merchant with a corresponding geolocationfor a predefined amount of time

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating data 300 which may be storedin the database 120 of the social media application server system 108,according to certain example embodiments. While the content of thedatabase 120 is shown to comprise a number of tables, it will beappreciated that the data could be stored in other types of datastructures (e.g., as an object-oriented database).

The database 120 includes message data stored within a message table314. An entity table 302 stores entity data, including an entity graph304. Entities for which records are maintained within the entity table302 may include individuals, corporate entities, organizations, objects,places, events, etc. Regardless of type, any entity regarding which thesocial media application server system 108 stores data may be arecognized entity. Each entity is provided with a unique identifier, aswell as an entity type identifier (not shown).

The entity graph 304 furthermore stores information regardingrelationships and associations between entities. Such relationships maybe social, professional (e.g., work at a common corporation ororganization), interested-based, or activity-based, merely for example.

The database 120 also stores annotation data, including in the exampleform of filters, in an annotation table 312. Filters for which data isstored within the annotation table 312 are associated with and appliedto videos (for which data is stored in a video table 310) and/or images(for which data is stored in an image table 308). Filters, in oneexample, are overlays that are displayed as overlaid on an image orvideo during presentation to a recipient user. Filters may be of varioustypes, including user-selected filters from a gallery of filterspresented to a sending user by the social media client application 104when the sending user is composing a message. Other types of filtersinclude geolocation filters (also known as geo-filters), which may bepresented to a sending user based on geographic location. For example,geolocation filters specific to a neighborhood or special location maybe presented within a user interface by the social media clientapplication 104, based on geolocation information determined by a GlobalPositioning System (GPS) unit of the client device 102. Another type offilter is a data filter, which may be selectively presented to a sendinguser by the social media client application 104, based on other inputsor information gathered by the client device 102 during the messagecreation process. Examples of data filters include a current temperatureat a specific location, a current speed at which a sending user istraveling, a battery life for a client device 102, or the current time.

Other annotation data that may be stored within the image table 308 isso-called “lens” data. A “lens” may be a real-time special effect andsound that may be added to an image or a video.

Yet further annotation data that may be stored within the annotationtable 312 is user-generated annotations or augmentations provided by theuser to overlay an underlying photographic image or video. Suchaugmentations/annotations can include, for example, text annotations anddrawing annotations or augmentations provided by the user, e.g., via aclient device touchscreen.

As mentioned above, the video table 310 stores video data which, in oneembodiment, is associated with messages for which records are maintainedwithin the message table 314. Similarly, the image table 308 storesimage data associated with messages for which message data is stored inthe message table 314. The entity table 302 may associate variousannotations from the annotation table 312 with various images and videosstored in the image table 308 and the video table 310.

A story table 306 stores data regarding collections of messages andassociated image, video, or audio data, which are compiled into acollection (e.g., a SNAPCHAT story or a gallery). The creation of aparticular collection may be initiated by a particular user (e.g., anyuser for whom a record is maintained in the entity table 302). A usermay create a “personal story” in the form of a collection of contentthat has been created and sent/broadcast by that user. To this end, theuser interface of the social media client application 104 may include anicon that is user selectable to enable a sending user to add specificcontent to his or her personal story. In the context of thisdescription, such messages and stories/galleries are understood to befor private consumption, being limited for viewing via the social mediaapplication to particular users identified by the submitting user or tousers who are members of a social network of the submitting user. Thisis to be contrasted with social media items provided for public ornon-private consumption via the social media application, not beinglimited to a user-specific or user-specified subset of all users of thesocial media application. An example of a publicly viewable collectionor gallery is a “Live Story” or “Our Story.”

As mentioned, a collection may also constitute a “Live Story,” which isa collection of content from multiple users that is created manually,automatically, or using a combination of manual and automatictechniques. For example, a “Live Story” may constitute a curated streamof user-submitted content from various locations and events. Users whoseclient devices have location services enabled and are at a common eventlocation at a particular time may, for example, be presented with anoption, via a user interface of the social media client application 104,to contribute content to a particular Live Story. The Live Story may beidentified to the user by the social media client application 104, basedon his or her location. The end result is a “Live Story” told from acommunity perspective. In accordance with some example embodiments ofthis disclosure, a submitting user can submit social media items ormessages to a non-specific common Live Story. Such content is accessibleto other users via a map-based graphical user interface, with suchsocial media items or messages being accessible via the map GUI based ona respective location indicated by corresponding geo-tag data, either byforming part of a location-based gallery or story, or by such otherusers using location-based search mechanisms forming part of the mapGUI.

A further type of content collection is known as a “location story,”which enables a user whose client device 102 is located within aspecific geographic location (e.g., on a college or university campus)to contribute to a particular collection. In some embodiments, acontribution to a location story may require a second degree ofauthentication to verify that the end user belongs to a specificorganization or other entity (e.g., is a student on the universitycampus). In some embodiments of this disclosure, a message uploaded to aLive Story or Our Story generally, without the user specifying aparticular location story in which the message is to be included, canautomatically or semi-automatically be included in a location storybased at least in part on geo-tag data of the message.

A map tile table 320 stores multiple map tiles that can be used forpresenting a map in a map viewport of a map-based GUI, according to someembodiments of this disclosure. In a particular example embodiment, eachmap view is composed of 9 or 16 map tiles stitched together. A pluralityof sets of map tiles may be maintained for different map zoom levels. Insome example embodiments, a superset of map tiles is maintainedserver-side, being forwarded to a requesting client device 102 forcomposing a map representation of specific requested areas.

A user location table 326 stores current or most recent user locationdata for multiple users of the social media application. The userlocation data may be based on location data received from respectiveclient devices 102 associated with the respective users. Such userlocation data is in some example embodiments used to display in amap-based GUI respective locations of a plurality of users who form partof the social network of the requesting user and/or who have providedpermission for the requesting user to view their locations. Each suchuser may be represented on a map forming part of the map GUI by arespective user icon or bitmoji.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a social mediaitem or message 400, according to some embodiments, generated by oneinstance of the social media client application 104 for communication toa further instance of the social media client application 104 or to thesocial media server application 114. The content of a particular message400 is used to populate the message table 314 stored within the database120, accessible by the social media server application 114. Similarly,the content of a message 400 is stored in memory as “in-transit” or“in-flight” data of the client device 102 or the application server 112.The message 400 is shown to include the following components:

A message identifier 402: a unique identifier that identifies themessage 400.

A message text payload 404: text, to be generated by a user via a userinterface of the client device 102 and that is included in the message400.

A message image payload 406: image data, captured by a camera componentof a client device 102 or retrieved from memory of a client device 102,and that is included in the message 400.

A message video payload 408: video data, captured by a camera componentor retrieved from a memory component of the client device 102 and thatis included in the message 400.

A message audio payload 410: audio data, captured by a microphone orretrieved from the memory component of the client device 102, and thatis included in the message 400.

A message annotation 412: annotation data (e.g., filters, stickers, orother enhancements) that represents annotations to be applied to themessage image payload 406, message video payload 408, or message audiopayload 410 of the message 400.

A display duration parameter 414: a parameter value indicating, inseconds, the amount of time for which content of the message (e.g., themessage image payload 406, message video payload 408, and message audiopayload 410) is to be presented or made accessible to a user via thesocial media client application 104. The display duration parameter 414is also referred to herein as a “display duration timer.”

A message geolocation parameter 416: geolocation data or geo-tag data(e.g., latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates) associated with thecontent payload of the message 400. Multiple message geolocationparameter 416 values may be included in the payload, each of theseparameter values being associated with respective content items includedin the content (e.g., a specific image within the message image payload406, or a specific video in the message video payload 408).

A message story identifier 418: identifier values identifying one ormore content collections (e.g., “stories”) with which a particularcontent item in the message image payload 406 of the message 400 isassociated. For example, multiple images within the message imagepayload 406 may each be associated with multiple content collectionsusing identifier values. An example of such a message story identifier418 can in some embodiments comprise one or more thumbnail images.

A message tag 420: each message 400 may be tagged with multiple tags,each of which is indicative of the subject matter of content included inthe message payload. For example, where a particular image included inthe message image payload 406 depicts an animal (e.g., a lion), a tagvalue may be included within the message tag 420 that is indicative ofthe relevant animal. Tag values may be generated manually, based on userinput, or may be automatically generated using, for example, imagerecognition.

A message sender identifier 422: an identifier (e.g., a messaging systemidentifier, email address, or device identifier) indicative of a user ofthe client device 102 on which the message 400 was generated and fromwhich the message 400 was sent.

A message receiver identifier 424: an identifier (e.g., a messagingsystem identifier, email address, or device identifier) indicative of auser of the client device 102 to which the message 400 is addressed.

The contents (e.g., values) of the various components of the message 400may be pointers to locations in tables within which content data valuesare stored. For example, an image value in the message image payload 406may be a pointer to (or address of) a location within an image table308. Similarly, values within the message video payload 408 may point todata stored within a video table 310, values stored within the messageannotation 412 may point to data stored in an annotation table 312,values stored within the message story identifier 418 may point to datastored in a story table 306, and values stored within the message senderidentifier 422 and the message receiver identifier 424 may point to userrecords stored within an entity table 302.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an access-limiting process500, in terms of which access to content (e.g., an ephemeral message502, and associated multimedia payload of data) or a content collection(e.g., an ephemeral message story 504) may be time-limited (e.g., madeephemeral).

An ephemeral message 502 is shown to be associated with a displayduration parameter 506, the value of which determines an amount of timethat the ephemeral message 502 will be displayed to a receiving user ofthe ephemeral message 502 by the social media client application 104. Inone embodiment, where the social media client application 104 is aSNAPCHAT client application, an ephemeral message 502 is viewable by areceiving user for up to a maximum of 10 seconds, depending on theamount of time that the sending user specifies using the displayduration parameter 506. In some embodiments, the system automaticallyattaches a default display duration parameter 506 to photographic orstill-image messages, e.g., having a default display duration of 5seconds. The display duration parameter 506 of video-based messages mayautomatically correspond to the duration of the underlying video, withan automatically enforced upper limit. Thus, in an example embodiment inwhich an upper limit of 10 seconds is enforced, a 7-second video messagewill have a display duration parameter of 7 seconds.

The display duration parameter 506 and the message receiver identifier424 are shown to be inputs to a message timer 512, which is responsiblefor determining the amount of time that the ephemeral message 502 isshown to a particular receiving user identified by the message receiveridentifier 424. In particular, the ephemeral message 502 will only beshown to the relevant receiving user for a time period determined by thevalue of the display duration parameter 506. The message timer 512 isshown to provide output to a more generalized ephemeral timer system202, which is responsible for the overall timing of display of content(e.g., an ephemeral message 502) to a receiving user.

The ephemeral message 502 is shown in FIG. 5 to be included within asocial media gallery in the form of an ephemeral message story 504(e.g., a personal SNAPCHAT story, or an event story). The ephemeralmessage story 504 has a story duration parameter 508, a value of whichdetermines a time duration for which the ephemeral message story 504 ismade available and is accessible to users of the social media platformsystem 100. The story duration parameter 508, for example, may be theduration of a music concert, where the ephemeral message story 504 is acollection of content pertaining to that concert. Alternatively, a user(either the owning user or a curator user) may specify the value for thestory duration parameter 508 when performing the setup and creation ofthe ephemeral message story 504. In some embodiments, the story durationparameter 508 is determined based at least in part on respective storyparticipation parameters 510 (or lifetimes) of one or more of theephemeral messages 502 forming part of the particular ephemeral messagestory 504. In one example embodiment, the story duration parameter 508corresponds to a story participation parameter 510 or lifetime of alast-posted one of the ephemeral messages 502 in the relevant ephemeralmessage story 504. In such a case, the ephemeral message story 504expires (e.g., by becoming unavailable for viewing via the social mediaplatform) when the last-posted ephemeral message 502 therein expires(e.g., when a story participation parameter 510 or lifetime of the lastephemeral message 502 expires).

As alluded to above, each ephemeral message 502 within the ephemeralmessage story 504 has an associated story participation parameter 510(also referred to herein as a “gallery participation parameter” or a“gallery participation timer”), a value of which determines the durationof time for which the ephemeral message 502 will be accessible withinthe context of the ephemeral message story 504. Accordingly, aparticular ephemeral message 502 may “expire” and become inaccessiblewithin the context of the ephemeral message story 504, prior to theephemeral message story 504 itself expiring in terms of the storyduration parameter 508. The story duration parameter 508, storyparticipation parameter 510, and message receiver identifier 424 eachprovide input to a story timer 514, which operationally determines,first, whether a particular ephemeral message 502 of the ephemeralmessage story 504 will be displayed to a particular receiving user, and,if so, for how long. Note that the ephemeral message story 504 is alsoaware of the identity of the particular receiving user as a result ofthe message receiver identifier 424.

Accordingly, the story timer 514 in some embodiments operationallycontrols the overall lifespan of an associated ephemeral message story504, as well as an individual ephemeral message 502 included in theephemeral message story 504. In one embodiment, each and every ephemeralmessage 502 within the ephemeral message story 504 remains viewable andaccessible for a time period specified by the story duration parameter508. In a further embodiment, a certain ephemeral message 502 mayexpire, within the context of the ephemeral message story 504, based ona story participation parameter 510. Note that a respective displayduration parameter 506 may still determine the duration of time forwhich a particular ephemeral message 502 is displayed to a receivinguser upon replay of the ephemeral message 502, even within the contextof the ephemeral message story 504. Accordingly, the display durationparameter 506 determines the duration of time that a particularephemeral message 502 is displayed to a receiving user, regardless ofwhether the receiving user is viewing that ephemeral message 502 insideor outside the context of an ephemeral message story 504.

The ephemeral timer system 202 may furthermore operationally remove aparticular ephemeral message 502 from the ephemeral message story 504based on a determination that it has exceeded an associated storyparticipation parameter 510. For example, when a sending user hasestablished a story participation parameter 510 of 24 hours fromposting, the ephemeral timer system 202 will remove the relevantephemeral message 502 from the ephemeral message story 504 after thespecified 24 hours. The ephemeral timer system 202 also operates toremove an ephemeral message story 504 either when the storyparticipation parameter 510 for each and every ephemeral message 502within the ephemeral message story 504 has expired, or when theephemeral message story 504 itself has expired in terms of the storyduration parameter 508. Note that in this disclosure, at least someephemeral messages 502 may be submitted by the user to the social mediaapplication for general or public viewing via the map-based GUI, withoutbeing included by the user in any particular event gallery and withoutbeing included in any location-based gallery represented by a respectivegallery icon on the map GUI. Such ephemeral messages 502 in someembodiments also have respective story participation parameters 510specifying time periods for which the ephemeral messages 502 areaccessible via the map GUI as part of a collective Live Story or OurStory, as described with reference to specific example embodimentsbelow. In a particular example embodiment, each ephemeral message 502thus submitted for public or non-private view has a default galleryparticipation parameter or story participation parameter 510 of 24hours. Such ephemeral messages 502 are thus viewable via the map GUI foronly 24 hours after submission.

In certain use cases, a creator of a particular ephemeral message story504 may specify an indefinite story duration parameter 508. In thiscase, the expiration of the story participation parameter 510 for thelast remaining ephemeral message 502 within the ephemeral message story504 will determine when the ephemeral message story 504 itself expires.In this case, a new ephemeral message 502, added to the ephemeralmessage story 504, with a new story participation parameter 510,effectively extends the life of an ephemeral message story 504 to equalthe value of the story participation parameter 510.

In response to the ephemeral timer system 202 determining that anephemeral message story 504 has expired (e.g., is no longer accessible),the ephemeral timer system 202 communicates with the social mediaplatform system 100 (and, for example, specifically the social mediaclient application 104) to cause an indicium (e.g., an icon) associatedwith the relevant ephemeral message story 504 to no longer be displayedwithin a user interface of the social media client application 104.Similarly, when the ephemeral timer system 202 determines that the storyparticipation parameter 510 for a particular ephemeral message 502 hasexpired, the ephemeral timer system 202 causes the social media clientapplication 104 to no longer display an indicium (e.g., an icon ortextual identification) associated with the ephemeral message 502.

Example Embodiments of Map GUI Functionality

First, various aspects and features of the disclosure will be describedconceptually with respect to specific example embodiments discussed withreference to and illustrated in FIGS. 6A-11B.

Basic Map GUI Architecture

FIG. 6A shows an example embodiment of a map-based graphical userinterface, further referred to as a map GUI 612, displayed on a clientdevice 102 in the example form of a mobile phone. In this exampleembodiment, the map GUI 612 is generated on a display in the form of atouchscreen 606 capable of receiving haptic input. The map GUI 612includes an interactive map 618 showing a stylized aerial or satelliterepresentation of a particular geographical area. The map 618 isdisplayed within a map viewport 621 which, in this example embodiment,uses the full available area of the touchscreen 606. In other exampleembodiments, the map viewport 621 may be a bounded panel or windowwithin a larger display screen. The map GUI 612 further comprises aplurality of user-selectable graphical user interface elements displayedat specific respective geographic locations on the map 618. Each suchgeo-anchored GUI element is in this example embodiment represented by arespective indicium or icon overlaid on the map 618. The different typesof icons and their respective functionalities will be described ingreater detail below. As will also be described briefly, the map GUI 612may further include one or more informational overlays rendered over theunderlying geographical map 618, in this example embodiment including aheatmap 625 representative of the geographical distribution ofunderlying social media activity on the social media platform providedby the relevant social media application.

As mentioned, the map GUI 612 includes a number of differentuser-selectable icons or UI elements that indicate differentgeographically based content or information. In this example embodiment,the map GUI 612 includes a plurality of different gallery icons, alsoreferred to in this description as “story icons.” Each story iconcorresponds in location on the map 618 to a respective location-basedsocial media gallery or collection, in this example embodimentcorresponding to a location-based story of ephemeral messages in theexample form of so-called “snaps,” as discussed elsewhere herein. Eachof these stories that are represented by respective story icons on themap 618 consists of a respective set of snaps (respectively comprisingaugmented or unaugmented photographic or video content) that are groupedtogether based at least in part on respective geo-tag data associatedwith respective snaps.

In the example embodiment of FIG. 6A, the map GUI 612 includes twodifferent types of gallery icons for two different respective types oflocation-based social media galleries, namely place icons 631 for placegalleries/stories, and spike icons 633 for spike galleries/stories thatare dynamically surfaced on the map GUI 612 based on one or more metricsof underlying social media activity relating to the submission of socialmedia items/snaps to the social media platform with geo-tag dataindicating the respectively associated geographical areas. Note thatthese different types of galleries are represented by different types oficons 631, 633. The differences between these different types ofgalleries and the corresponding visually distinct gallery icons 631, 633are discussed later herein. The map GUI 612 in this example embodimentfurther includes friend icons in the example form of bitmojis 640 thatare displayed on the map GUI 612 based on the current or last knowngeographic location of respective friends of the user associated withthe client device 102.

Message and/or Story Ephemerality

In this example embodiment, the social media items that are selectivelyplayable by selection of the corresponding story icons 631, 633 in themap GUI 612 are ephemeral social media items or messages. As describedpreviously, ephemeral content is social media content (e.g., augmentedand/or unaugmented video clips, pictures, and/or other messages) that isavailable for viewing by social media users via the map GUI 612 for onlya predetermined limited period, also referred to herein as a respectivegallery participation parameter or timer. After expiry of a respectivegallery participation parameter or timer for any ephemeral message orsnap uploaded by a particular user, that ephemeral message or snap is nolonger available for viewing by other users via the map GUI 612generated on their respective client devices 102. Current examples ofsuch ephemeral social media content include the respective snaps ormessages included in so-called “stories” in the SNAPCHAT or theINSTAGRAM social media applications.

Instead of, or in addition to, management of ephemerality on a per-snaplevel using respective gallery participation timers, availability of theephemeral messages by the map GUI 612 can in some instances be managedcollectively, e.g., on a per-story level. In such instances, each storycan have a respective story duration parameter 508 (e.g., being based ona corresponding story timer 514—see FIG. 5 ), at the expiry of whichavailability of the corresponding story for viewing via the map GUI 612is terminated. In some embodiments, the story duration parameter 508 iscalculated based on the story participation parameter 510 of one of theephemeral messages included in the relevant story. For example, a storymay in some embodiments expire when a last uploaded item within thestory expires, in response to which the corresponding story icon 631,633 is no longer displayed on the map GUI 612. In one exampleembodiment, the map GUI 612 may include one or more event icons (e.g.,similar in appearance to the place icons 631 of FIG. 6A) correspondingto respective event stories, with the story duration parameter 508 ofthe event story being set to expire a predetermined period of time fromthe start or conclusion of the underlying event. At expiry of the storyduration parameter 508, the corresponding gallery icon 631, 633 isremoved from the map GUI 612, irrespective of individual timersassociated with respective snaps included in the event story.

Story Playback

The user can select any one of the gallery icons 631, 633 by hapticcontact with the touchscreen 606 at the on-screen location of theselected gallery icon 631/633. In response to such selection, automatedsequential playback of the corresponding set of ephemeral messages orsnaps in the selected story is performed by the client device 102 on thetouchscreen 606. Such automated sequential playback of the selectedstory consists of :

-   -   displaying on the touchscreen 606 the content or media payload        of a first one of the ephemeral messages for a corresponding        display duration (e.g., a default value of five seconds for        photo-based messages and a maximum value of 10 seconds for        video-based snaps), in this example embodiment temporarily        replacing the map GUI 612 on the touchscreen 606 with a        full-screen replay of the relevant snap;    -   at expiry of the display duration, displaying the content of the        next snap/message for its display duration; and    -   thus progressing in sequence through all of the ephemeral        messages in the selected story until all of the snaps in the        story have been replayed or until the user selectively dismisses        the playback sequence.

In some embodiments, not all of the snaps in a particular story/galleryare necessarily included in the replay sequence. For example, if thereare many overlapping snaps (e.g., snaps showing substantially identicalcontent), some of those snaps are automatically skipped to keep acontinuous narrative and not repeat some sections of an event commonlycaptured by the different snaps. Instead, or in addition, the socialmedia server application 114 can in some embodiments be programmedautomatically to identify and curate overlapping or contemporaneoussnaps based on timestamp information associated with respective snaps.

In this example embodiment, the snaps automatically collected togetherin a replayable spike story or place story are arranged automatically tobe played back in chronological order based on respective timestamps(e.g., being played in sequence from oldest to newest or earliest postedto most recently posted). A benefit of such chronological playback isthat viewing of the story provides a user with sequentially arrangedviews of events transpiring at the relevant location. In some instances,however, a human curator may choose to rearrange snaps out ofchronological order, for example to improve the narrative flow of thestory. In other embodiments, the snaps may be played in reversechronological order, from newest to oldest.

It can thus be seen that the example map GUI 612 includes multiplelocation-based gallery icons in the example form of story icons 631, 633that are user-selectable to trigger playback of respective collectionsof ephemeral social media items, in this example embodiment beingrespective ephemeral stories consisting of respective sets of ephemeralmessages (also referred to in this description as “snaps”). In thisexample embodiment, each of the plurality of location-based storiesrepresented by the respective story icons 631, 633 may comprise mediacontent contributed by multiple different users.

Our Story and Publication of Ephemeral Messages to Our Story

The respective ephemeral stories are in this example embodiment compiledfrom ephemeral messages submitted by multiple users based at least inpart on geo-tagging of the respective snaps. Note that the ephemeralmessages made available for viewing via the map GUI 612 are in thisexample embodiment not limited to content provided by other users whoare members of an in-application social network of the user on whoseclient device 102 the map GUI 612 is generated. Instead, the socialmedia content to which the map GUI 612 allows access is in this exampleembodiment provided by snaps uploaded or submitted by any user to bepublicly accessible via the map GUI 612.

One aspect of the example map GUI 612 provides for the functionality forusers to submit social media content that is publicly viewable via themap GUI 612. Turning briefly to FIG. 7A, therein is shown an exampleembodiment of a destination selection interface 707 forming part of themap GUI 612 to provide a mechanism that gives the user a selectableoption to make a snap publicly viewable via the map GUI 612 uponcapturing of the snap.

In this example embodiment, snaps can be captured via the map GUI 612while the map viewport 621 is displayed (as seen in FIG. 6A) byoperation of a camera soft button 650 (FIG. 6A) forming part of the mapGUI 612. After capturing of photo or video content by operation of thecamera soft button 650, the captured media content is displayed on thetouchscreen 606 (FIG. 7A) together with the destination selectioninterface 707. In this example embodiment, the user can select one orboth destination options identified in FIG. 7A as “My Story” and “OurStory,” represented in FIG. 7A by respective radio buttons 714, 721. Byselecting the Our Story radio button 721 and thereafter selecting a“Send” soft button 728, the user can submit the snap over the network106 to the application server 112 with an indication that the snap isavailable for non-private publication via the map GUI 612. If the snapis not so marked by the user, for example being associated withselection of the My Story radio button 714 only, then the snap is notavailable for inclusion in any of the stories associated with the storyicons 631, 633 and is not available for inclusion in search results of alocation-based search via the map GUI 612, as described later herein.Snaps included only in the My Story gallery are available only tofriends of the user (e.g., members of the uploading user's socialnetwork). The My Story gallery is a per-user location-agnostic galleryof ephemeral messages available to friend users only, thus being anon-public or private gallery.

In other example embodiments described herein, the superset of ephemeralmessages made available by multiple users for public viewing via the mapGUI 612 is alternatively referred to as the “Live Story” or simply as a“Live” gallery. For the purposes of the description of exampleembodiments herein, “Live Story” and “Our Story” are thus to be read asbeing synonymous. In the present example embodiment, the compilationand/or surfacing of gallery icons 631, 633 and the rendering of theheatmap 625 are based exclusively on publicly available social mediacontent provided by snaps uploaded to Our Story. Calculation of metricsor attributes of social media activity upon which one or more aspects ofthe map GUI 612 are based (e.g., an unusualness or anomality metricindicating geo-temporal unusualness or anomality of social mediaactivity within respective geographical areas) is in this exampleembodiment likewise based exclusively on snaps uploaded to Our Story.

Visual Distinctions between Story Icons for Different Story Types

Returning now to the visual distinctions or differences between thedifferent types of gallery icons 631, 633, it will be noted that eachgallery icon 631/633 in this example embodiment comprises a circulargraphical user interface element bearing a thumbnail image provided bythe one of the snaps contained in the respective story. Each place icon631, however, also includes an associated label 635 bearing a textindication of the associated place. In this example embodiment, thelabels 635 indicate the respective places of the place stories surfacedin the geographic window presently displayed in the example map 618 asbeing the Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park, and the Empire StateBuilding, respectively.

In other example embodiments, the visual distinctions between differenttypes of story icons may be provided in a different manner. FIG. 6B, forexample, shows another example embodiment of a map GUI 612 that isanalogous to the example embodiment of FIG. 6A, a major difference beingthat the visual distinction between place icons 631 and spike icons 633is provided at least in part by differently shaped thumbnail images. Inthe example of FIG. 6B, the thumbnails of the place icons 631 arerectangular, while the thumbnails of the spike icons 633 are circular.

The respective thumbnail images that are used for the spike icons 633are in the example embodiments of FIGS. 6A and 6B automatically selectedby the social media server application 114. In this instance, thethumbnail image for a spike icon 633 is automatically selected based onthe posting time of the respective snaps forming part of thecorresponding spike story, in this case being selected as a mostrecently posted snap in the relevant story. In other embodiments,automatic selection of the thumbnail image to be used in the spike icon633 can be based on selecting the earliest-posted ephemeral message/snapthat is still available for viewing as part of the spike story. Thethumbnail images for the place icons 631 (or for icons associated withother curated stories, such as event stories) can in some embodimentslikewise be selected automatically. In this embodiment, however, thethumbnail images for the place icons 631 can be selected from the snapsincluded in the corresponding story/gallery by a human operator via acontent management interface forming part of the social media serverapplication 114. Absent such an explicit designation of a particularsnap to be used for the thumbnail image, thumbnail selection may revertto an automatic default selection as described previously.

Differences between Different Story Types

Place Stories

Returning to FIG. 6A, the differences between the different types ofsocial media galleries or stories accessible via respective story icons631, 633 on the map GUI 612 will now be briefly discussed.

Place stories, represented by respective place icons 631, are socialmedia galleries for defined locations or places, typically being placesthat consistently have relatively large activity volumes (e.g., TimesSquare, Universal Studios, etc.). Note that, in this example embodiment,not all defined places are by default surfaced in the map GUI 612 byrespective place icons 631. Instead, the geo-anchored place stories aresurfaced based on the amount of activity (e.g., the raw number ofuploaded snaps) captured within a defined geographical area associatedwith the relevant place, as indicated by associated geo-tag data. Thisensures that places that regularly or always attract relatively largevolumes of snaps are identified as such on the map 618.

Defined places for which place icons 631 may be surfaced in the map GUI612 are in this example embodiment manually created by one or more humanoperators using a server-side gallery management system or contentmanagement system (CMS) 1224 provided by a server-side social mediaplatform system 1200 (FIG. 12 ). In this example embodiment, eachdefined place has:

-   -   (a) an associated operator-defined polygon marking its        geographical boundaries, that specify a particular geographical        area for the place story;    -   (b) a thumbnail location or icon location, typically lying        within the associated polygon, that specifies the on-map        position at which the place icon 631 for a gallery or story        associated with that place is displayed in the map 618; and    -   (c) a name by which the place is identified. In the example        embodiment of FIG.

6A, this is the name that is displayed on the associated label 635 ofthe place icon 631.

In other embodiments, such places and associated place stories areautomatically identified by historical snap volume. In some suchembodiments, the defined places and their associated stories/galleriesare created and curated automatically by server-side procedures.

In some instances, each place story includes all of the snaps havinggeotag information indicating a geographic location lying within theassociated polygon. Selection of a particular place icon 631 (e.g., byclicking in a desktop application or by tapping on the touchscreen 606in the example embodiment of FIG. 6A) in such cases plays all the snapsfrom within the corresponding polygon. In this example embodiment, theCMS 1224 provides functionality to operators or administrators to curatethe collection of snaps associated with any operator-selected definedplace (e.g., a particular geographical area defined by the correspondingpolygon). The operator or one or more automated procedures can thus, forexample, delete individual snaps from the place story, or can selectindividual snaps for inclusion in the place story.

When snaps are played in response to selection of a place icon 631, thename of the place appears on-screen together with the replayed contentor payload of the respective snaps. As mentioned, in this exampleembodiment, the snap represented by a corresponding thumbnail within therelevant place icon 631 is played first, then the rest in time order.

Spike Stories

The unlabeled circular spike icons 633 are automatically surfaced forgeographical areas of unusually high activity, with the respectiveassociated spike stories or ad hoc galleries including unexpired snapswithin the associated geographical area. In the example embodiment ofFIG. 6A, all ad hoc galleries associated with spike icons 633 areunmoderated, so that selecting a spike icon 633 triggers automatedsequential replay of all of the snaps within a geographical areaassociated with the spike icon 633. In a particular example embodiment,the geographical area associated with the spike icon 633 includes allgeographical points located within a predefined radius of the on-maplocation of the selected spike icon 633.

Thus, clicking or tapping on the spike icon 633 plays all the snaps inthat cluster, showing the snap in the thumbnail first and then the restof the snaps in time order. Note, again, that the snaps clustered underthe common spike icon 633 are in this example uploaded by multipledifferent respective social media users to Our Story, and are uncuratedby moderators. In other embodiments, the stories collected under suchspike thumbnails may be curated.

Automated selection of spike icons 633 (and therefore of the associatedsocial media gallery, collection, or story) for surfacing in the map GUI612 is in this example embodiment based at least in part on calculationof respective anomality or unusualness metric values for differentgeographical areas. Thus, a higher level of unusualness or anomality ofuser activity in a particular geo-temporal space would in such instancesincrease the likelihood of a particular spike story being surfaced onthe map GUI 612 by display of a corresponding spike icon 633. Asmentioned, the anomality metric provides an indication of the level ofgeo-temporal unusualness or anomality of social media activity.Calculation of anomality metrics can in some embodiments comprisecalculating a level or percentage of difference between historicalactivity levels in a given area, and activity levels in a current timewindow. It will be appreciated that heat map coloration and contentsurfacing increases with an increase in positive anomality levels (i.e.,indicating unusually high social media activity). Also note that, insome embodiments, a social media activity metric upon which heat mapgeneration and/or content surfacing is based on a combination of factorsthat include an anomality metric. In a particular example embodiment,the social media activity metric is provided by a combination of a rawactivity metric and an anomality metric.

Instead, or in addition, human curators can, via the CMS 1224, also markspecific spike stories or clusters as “interesting,” thereby boostingthe unusualness or anomality score of the respective spike.

Note that, in the example embodiment described with reference to FIG.6A, different social media activity attributes or metrics are used forsurfacing of the place icons 631 and the spike icons 633 respectively.As discussed, spike icons 633 are in this example embodiment surfacedbased on anomality metric values, while place icons 631 are surfacedbased on raw snap volume. In other embodiments, surfacing of the placeicons 631 may also be based at least in part on associated anomalityvalues. Note that in some embodiments, various aspects of social mediasurfacing as described herein (including heatmap calculation andgeneration, story surfacing, etc.) are based on attributes other thananomality. For example, the heatmap 625 and story surfacing are in oneembodiment based on raw activity levels. Therefore, discussion herein ofaspects of the disclosure relating to informational overlays (such asthe heatmap 625) and content surfacing based on the anomality metric isto be read as, in other embodiments, being performed based on adifferent social media activity value, such as raw snap numbers in agiven time period, snap frequency, snap density, or the like.

Other Types of Stories or Ephemeral Social Media Galleries

Other embodiments can instead, or in addition, provide for social mediagallery types different from the place stories and the spike storiesdescribed with reference to FIGS. 6A and 6B. Each such different type ofgallery may be represented on the map 618 by a visually distinct type oficon or other user interface element.

One example embodiment provides for event galleries pertaining toparticular events occurring at a specific location. Such events caninclude, for example, concerts, festivals, sports events, or the like.These event galleries are in one embodiment created and curatedserver-side by human operators using the CMS 1224.

Some embodiments provide for surfacing on the map 618 story icons orthumbnails with respect to non-public snaps, e.g., snaps or stories thatare access-restricted based at least in part on social networkinformation. For example, individual stories uploaded by friend usersmay in some embodiments be represented on the map 618 by a respectiveicon or thumbnail. For example, the My Story of friend users may in someembodiments be directly accessible via the map 618. Such story icons arein some embodiments indicated by a respective friend icon or bitmoji 640located on the map 618 corresponding to the location at which thecorresponding story was generated. In other embodiments, each such userstory icon may be indicated on the map GUI 612 by a circular thumbnailanalogous to the previously described example story icons 631, 633.

Snap Submission to User-Selected Location Based Stories

Another feature of the disclosure enables users to submit publiclyviewable snaps designated for inclusion in any and all Live Stories orephemeral galleries that might be happening at locations where the useris eligible to post, e.g., being geographically proximate to the currentlocation of the user as indicated by the associated client device 102.In this manner, the user can specify snaps for inclusion in placestories, event stories, or other location-based ephemeral social mediagalleries as discussed above.

FIGS. 7B and 7C show an example embodiment of a destination selectioninterface 707 that provides a mechanism for such destination selectionalternative to the example embodiment previously described withreference to FIG. 7A. The destination selection interface 707 of FIG. 7Bis displayed on the client device 102 in response to the user initiatinga snap submission flow, e.g., by capturing a snap.

The destination selection interface 707 of FIG. 7B is similar to that ofthe example embodiment of FIG. 7A, in that two different user-selectableuser interface elements in the form of respective radio buttons 714, 721are presented for posting a snap to a user-specific My Story (radiobutton 714) or to a publicly viewable Our Story (radio button 721). Adistinction between the destination selection interface 707 of FIG. 7Aand that of FIG. 7B is that the Our Story cell of FIG. 7B automaticallyexpands upon selection of the radio button 721 to show subtitles oflocal place stories and/or event stories to which the snap could besubmitted based on device location or the geo-tag of the associatedsnap.

FIG. 7C shows additional options presented as a result of selecting theOur Story radio button 721, which opens up a list showing the respectivelocal stories for which the snap is eligible. In this exampleembodiment, all suboptions are selected by default via respective radiobuttons 750. In other embodiments, separate selection of individualsuboptions may be required. If the user chooses to submit the snap withall of the options selected, that snap is automatically associated witheach of the selected suboptions as well as being made available forgeographically based viewing as part of Our Story, separate from anycurated location-based place or event gallery/story, as described above.

The user can deselect any particular suboptions by clicking or tappingon the corresponding default-selected radio button 750, as shown in FIG.7C, in which the lowermost one of the suboptions has been deselected. Ifall suboptions are deselected, the snap is not posted to any curatedlocation-based story, but is posted only to Our Story to be publiclyviewable via the map GUI 612, as described elsewhere herein.

Heatmap Considerations

As shown in FIG. 6A, the social media application map GUI 612 in thisexample embodiment includes a heat map layer overlaid on thegeographical map 618, thus providing the heatmap 625 that indicatesgeographical distribution of one or more attributes of user activitywithin the social media application. As discussed previously, theheatmap 625 indicates user activity levels with respect to postinggeotagged content that is publicly viewable (e.g., Live Stories/OurStory). Instead, or in addition, the heatmap 625 can in some embodimentsbe based on snaps that are available for viewing by the particular useron whose client device 102 the map GUI 612 is displayed, in which casethe heatmap 625 may differ from person to person depending on who gavethe viewer permission to see their snaps.

In this example embodiment, the map 618 is color-coded, with warmercolors corresponding to higher levels of unusualness, as indicated byhigher anomality metric values. Thus, in the map 618 illustrated in FIG.6A, the red areas of the heatmap 625 indicate those geographical areaswith snap clusters corresponding to the highest anomality metric values.Again, different metrics or attributes for generation of the heatmap 625may be used in other embodiments, for example being based on snapdensity (e.g., raw snap volume per unit area of the map 618).

In some embodiments, the map GUI 612 displays information pertaining tothe heatmap 625 differently at different magnification levels. Forexample, calculation of anomality metrics and consequent rendering ofthe heatmap 625 based thereon is in some embodiments performedseparately for each of a plurality of zoom levels. In addition,different sets of spike icons 633 may be surfaced at differentmagnification levels. In one example embodiment, the heatmap 625 may bedisplayed at a first zoom level without individual spike icons 633surfaced in the map GUI 612, while multiple gallery or story icons 631,633 are automatically surfaced in response to user-controlled zooming inon a particular portion of the map 618 shown at the first zoom level.

Anomality Metric Calculation

Some features of the map GUI 612 in this example embodiment provide forcalculating with respect to social media content an anomality metricthat quantifies geospatial anomality or unusualness of the social mediacontent, and for surfacing the social media content in the map GUI 612based on respective values for the anomality metric. In this exampleembodiment, respective collections of snaps associated with differentgeographical locations are ranked based at least in part oncorresponding anomality metric values, and a predetermined number of thecollections are automatically selected based on their anomality rankingsfor surfacing on the map GUI 612 with respective spike icons 633.Instead, or in addition, all spike stories with a positive anomalitymetric value (i.e., reflecting anomalously high, not low, activity)higher than a predefined threshold value can automatically be surfacedby the display of a corresponding spike icon 633. As described elsewhereherein, the calculation and display of heatmap information is in someembodiments based at least in part on anomality metric calculation.

Anomality metrics may in some embodiments be calculated for individualsocial media items. In this example embodiment, however, anomalitymetrics are calculated for collective user behavior. In particular,anomality metrics are calculated for multiple snaps (in this examplebeing respective geotagged social media submissions) based on acomparison between geo-temporal distribution of the multiple snaps andhistoric geo-temporal social media behavior in or around the relevantgeographic location.

Note that the calculation of anomality metrics is in this exampleembodiment time sensitive. Thus, the same volume of snaps in aparticular location may be identified as being anomalous at one time ofthe day but not at another time. For example, a certain level of socialmedia activity (here, posting of snaps to Our Story) at the Empire StateBuilding would be flagged as above-threshold anomalous at 4 AM, butwould not be thus identified as anomalous during daytime.

An aspect of the disclosure provides for determining one or moregeo-temporal attributes of social media activity by a processcomprising, for each of multiple social media postings, representing theposting as having a distribution in time and/or in space. In someembodiments, representing respective postings as having a geo-temporaldistribution comprises treating respective social media items as aprobability cloud, for example having a Gaussian distribution. Instead,or in addition, the method may comprise generating or extrapolating ahistorical model or historical representation of social media activitybased at least in part on a resampling procedure executed with respectto a multiplicity of historical geo-tagged social media items. In oneexample embodiment, the resampling procedure comprises a bootstrappingoperation.

In some embodiments, the representation of social media postings ashaving respective distributions in time and/or space is performed aspart of an operation to represent a geo-temporal reference profile ormodel for historical social media activity for a particular geographicalarea. Instead, or in addition, the representation of social mediapostings as having respective distributions in time and/or space may beperformed as part of a procedure to represent recent or near-live socialmedia activity in the particular geographical area. In such cases, thegeo-temporal reference profile and the representation of the recent ornear-live social media activity may be used in combination to identifywithin the geographical area one or more regions of interesting oranomalous social media activity, e.g., by calculating a geographicaldistribution of a quantified anomality metric based on differencesbetween the geo-temporal reference profile and the correspondingrepresentation of recent or near-live social media activity.

Dynamic Variation of Icon Size

Turning briefly to FIG. 6B, it will be seen that the map GUI 612illustrated therein provides an example embodiment of an aspect of thedisclosure that provides for automated variation in one or more visualattributes of user interface elements associated with respective socialmedia content based at least in part on a quantified attribute ofunderlying social media activity. In particular, the example embodimentof FIG. 6B provides for dynamic variation in the on-screen size ofrespective spike icons 633 based on respective anomality metric valuesfor the corresponding clusters or spike galleries. On-screen size of therespective spike icons 633 thus indicates a level of unusualness oranomality of the underlying social media activity. Worded differently,the size of a spike icon 633 represents how unusual it is for there tobe the relevant amount of activity in that spot, with a larger spikeicon 633 indicating a greater level of unusualness.

Instead, or in addition, a visual attribute (such as its on-screen size)of the place icons 631 may likewise be variable based on a correspondinganomality value. In the example embodiment of FIG. 6B, however, theon-screen size of the place icons 631 is variable based on snap volume,with a greater number of snaps included in any place story correspondingto a larger on-screen size of the associated place icon 631. Thus, it isintuitively intelligible from the example screenshot shown in FIG. 6Bthat the Universal Studios story has a greater number of snaps than theVenice Boardwalk story.

Location Sharing and User Icons User Location Display

As mentioned previously, the map GUI 612 includes a graphicalrepresentation of associated locations of the user associated with theclient device 102 and/or other users, each user being represented by arespective user icon or friend icon (for users who are members of anin-application social graph associated with the viewing user), in theillustrated embodiments being in the form of respective bitmojis 640. Inthis example embodiment, a user of the social media platform will not besharing their location if they have never interacted with the map GUI612. The first time the user interacts with the map GUI 612, the user istaken through an on-boarding flow which allows for the setting ofindividual location sharing preferences.

Regardless of whether the user has selected to show their location toanyone, the user can see their own current location on the map at alltimes, and, if the user's bitmoji 640 is no longer in view, snap back toit, causing the map focus to re-center on the user location. FIG. 8Ashows an example embodiment in which the viewing user's location isindicated by a custom user-selected or user-generated user interfaceelement in the form of the user's bitmoji 640.

Location sharing preferences can be changed from the graphical userinterface of FIG. 8A. In this embodiment, changes to location sharingpreferences can be affected by (a) entering an invisible mode in whichthe user's location is not visible by any other user (also referred toherein as Ghost Mode), and (b) changing default location sharingsettings and/or respective settings for different friend users and/orgroups of friend users.

Location sharing can be turned off or on from within the map GUI 612,thereby to enter or exit Ghost Mode. In this embodiment, Ghost Mode canbe toggled on/off via a map pin icon 808 in the top right (see FIG. 8A).When location sharing is off (i.e., when in Ghost Mode), the user'slocation is no longer displayed in the map GUI 612 on other user'sclient devices 102. The user can still, however, see his/her location inthe map GUI on his/her own device. When in Ghost Mode, a ghost icon (notshown) slowly pulses in the top right of the screen in replacement ofthe map pin icon 808.

Note that the Ghost Mode functionality described herein is to bedistinguished from turning off location services on a mobile userdevice. Thus, when Ghost Mode is turned on, the device location servicesof the client device 102 are still functioning, so that the userlocation can still be determined and displayed on the map GUI 612 of theuser's own device 102, with social media content captured in Ghost Modestill being geo-tagged.

When the user turns on Ghost Mode after previously being present on themap, the user's bitmoji 640 disappears within seconds from otherpeople's maps. When in Ghost Mode, the user can still see anyone on themap who has chosen to share their location with the user.

If the user selects their own bitmoji 640, a user bubble or user panel816 is launched at the bottom of the touchscreen 606, enabling the userto access location sharing preferences via a settings soft button 824.The user panel 816 further includes a location-agnostic collection iconin the form of a My Story icon 832. The My Story icon 832 is selectableto launch replay of the viewing user's My Story, being alocation-agnostic collection of social media items (here, ephemeralsnaps) submitted by the user. Analogous to other location-agnostic GUIfeatures disclosed herein, location-agnostic in this context means thatthe collection of social media items playable via the My Story icon 832is collated and displayed without regard to any location constraint,thus being unaffected by geo-tagging information associated with therespective items, by the user's current location, or by the currentfocus of the map 618.

Location Sharing Preferences

Selecting the settings soft button 824 causes display in the map GUI 612of a location sharing preferences interface 840 (FIG. 8B) that, in thisexample embodiment, provides the user with options for specifying whowill get to see their location, and at what granularity. Default sharinggranularity options provided in this example embodiment include:

-   -   Precise, meaning in this embodiment is that the user's bitmoji        640 is displayed to friend users via their map GUIs 612 at the        user's actual location (e.g., as indicated by the location        services of the client device 102). In other words, the display        location and the actual location for the user is substantially        the same; and    -   City, meaning that the display location of the user's bitmoji        640 will be different from the actual location, but will be        located within a defined geographical region corresponding to        the current actual location. In this example embodiment, the        defined geographical region within which the user's location is        displayed is at a city level (e.g., Venice, CA, London, etc.).

When the city option is selected for a particular group of users or forparticular individuals, the user's bitmoji 640 will in this exampleembodiment be shown in the map GUI 612 generated on the user devices 102of the selected persons (or persons within the selected group) at arandom location within that city, and which will in this embodiment notchange if the user does not leave that city. FIG. 8C shows an example ofdisplay of a user bitmoji 640 in the interactive map 618 of the map GUI612 at such a city-level display granularity, in which the user bitmoji640 is shown at the random location in the city, together with anassociated label 860 specifying, broadly, the city in which the user islocated (in the illustrated example embodiment being Santa Monica).

Note that the features related to intentionally inaccurate display ofthe user's location has the effect that the user's location is displayeddifferently on, the one hand, an instance of the map GUI 612 generatedon their own device 102 (e.g., FIG. 8A, in which the display location ofthe user bitmoji 640 corresponds to the actual location of the user)and, on the other hand, instances of the map GUI 612 generated on theuser devices 102 of friend users having a non-precise viewing permission(e.g., labeled city-level display such as that illustrated in FIG. 8C,in which the display location of the user bitmoji 640 differs from theuser's actual location). In this example embodiment, the displaylocation of the user bitmoji 640 at a non-precise regional level (e.g.,at city-level) is the same across different friend user devices 102, sothat different friends see the user bitmoji 640 as being displayed atthe same random location. In other embodiments, the display location canbe different for different friend users.

It will be seen that this aspect of the disclosure thus provides for amethod comprising: determining a location of a user device associatedwith the user of a social media application; determining a user-selectedlocation display setting that specifies a manner in which the userlocation is to be displayed on a map-based GUI displayed to other usersof the social media application, the location display setting beingselected from a predetermined set of location display settings thatcorrespond to display of the user location at different respectivelevels of precision on the map-based GUI; and representing the user onthe map-based GUI of the friend user by rendering a UI elementassociated with the user at a location on the map-based GUI inaccordance with the selected location display setting.

The defined geographic region is in the example embodiment of FIG. 8B asbeing available only at city level. In other embodiments, different oradditional levels of display granularity can be provided, for exampleidentifying different levels of cartographically and/or politicallydefined geographical regions, such as county-, city-, town-, orneighborhood level. Note that, in the example embodiment of FIG. 8B,Ghost Mode can not only be toggled at a general level (via a Ghost Modetoggle 841), but can be selected for groups of users or for individualfriend users via a group selector 842 and a friend selector 843respectively. In some embodiments, the displayed user location remainsfixed at the randomly selected display position until the user device102 leaves the defined geographic area. Thus, a new display location isin some embodiments determined each time the user enters the relevantarea.

As mentioned, the user can also via the location sharing preferencesinterface 840 select different groups of other users to which hislocation will be displayed, and may in some embodiments specifydifferent display attributes for the different respective groups or fordifferent respective individuals. In this example, audience optionsavailable via the group selector 842 include: Best Friends, Friends, andCustom (which is an individual-level whitelist of people specified bythe friend selector 843).

If Friends are selected, all new people added to the user's friends listwill automatically be able to see their location, consistent with thegranularity level selected in the group selector 842 (e.g., beingselectable as precise or at city level in the group selector 842 of FIG.8B). If they are already sharing with the user, they appear withinseconds on the user's map.

In this example embodiment, the location sharing relationships aretwo-way—if John is sharing his location with Jack, Jack will not seeJohn on his map 618 unless he has added him as a friend. The user cannotadd anyone who is not a friend to the Custom section. The user canfurthermore, via the friend selector 843 43, define more specializedpermissions for specific people, which override the default setting

When viewing the map GUI 612, the user will thus be able to see thelocations of all his/her friends that have shared their location withhim/her on the map 618. As discussed, each user is in this exampleembodiment represented by a bitmoji 640. If the friend does not have abitmoji 640, a profile picture within a generic UI element is shown. Ifno profile pictures available for a particular friend, a default icon(e.g., a blank profile) is displayed at the corresponding location.

Friend-Level Access via Friend Icon/Friend Carousel

In this example embodiment, friend-level access to friend informationand friend-specific content is enabled via the interactive map 618. Suchfriend-level access is distinguished from location-based accessmechanisms such as a location-based search or snap collectionsaccessible via respective geo-anchored story icons 631, 633. One exampleof such a friend-level access mechanism is a friend bubble or friendpanel 909 (FIG. 9A that pops up at the bottom of the screen when theuser taps on the bitmoji 640 of a displayed friend. The friend panel 909and a friend carousel 918 of which it forms part, provide a number offunctionalities to the user.

In the example embodiment of FIG. 9A, the friend panel 909 displayssummary information about the user. As illustrated in FIG. 9A, thefriend panel 909 forms part of a friend carousel 918 that enables theuser selectively to switch focus between different friends. Note that,in addition to the main friend panel 909, the friend carousel 918includes a next friend panel 909 whose left edge is exposed on theright-hand side of the touchscreen 606.

The user can swipe between friends on the map 618 via the friendcarousel 918. In this example embodiment, switching between friends isachieved by swiping the current focus friend panel 909 left or right.Swiping left or right on the friend panel 909 brings into view the nextor previous friend panel 909, as the case may be. In this exampleembodiment, swiping to a particular friend automatically centers the map618 on the bitmoji 640 of that friend. Note that all of the friends forwhom the user has viewing permission should be available as part of thefriend carousel 918, not just those friends who are visible in the mapviewport 621. Friends are in this embodiment ordered in the carousel byupdate recency.

The friend panel 909 also includes a chat soft button 918 that can beselected to launch a chat interface 950 (see FIG. 9B) in temporaryreplacement of the interactive map 618, but without leaving the map GUI612. In other embodiments, tapping on the friend bitmojis 640 causes afly-out menu to be displayed, with initiation of a chat session beingone of the selectable options.

In this example embodiment, selection of the chat soft button 918 causesthe chat interface 950 to pop up in a modal over the map 618, whichmodal can be swiped down to dismiss. Incoming chat notifications can beopened in this modal view.

The friend carousel 918 additionally provides location-agnostic accessto social media content provided by respective friend users via the mapGUI 612. In this example embodiment, such location-agnostic access isavailable via a location-agnostic collection icon in the form of arespective Friend Story icon 932 displayed in the friend panel 909. TheFriend Story icon 932 is selectable to trigger replay of a correspondingstory (in this example being that the My Story of the selected friend)comprising a series of snaps uploaded by the corresponding friend user,without any location constraint on the replayed material. In otherwords, no location information has any effect on the availability andidentity of these snaps. The friend carousel 918, via the Friend Storyicon 932 thus provides a link from the user location to social mediacontent that is not located anywhere, in that the snaps or stories thusavailable will be the same irrespective of the friend user's currentlocation, the current focus of the map viewport 621, or the currentlocation of the viewing user. Worded differently, this and otherlocation-agnostic access features of the map GUI 612 provide for accessto friend content via the map GUI 612 in a manner similar to that whichwould be provided by a GUI that is not map-based. Thus, in one exampleembodiment, selecting a particular friend bitmoji 640 causes display ofa menu or user interface element (in the example embodiment of FIG. 9A,the respective Friend Story icon 932 of the selected user) through whichavailable snaps and/or stories of the target user can be viewed, withoutregard to any geo-tagging information of the respective snaps/stories.

As will be described below, certain aspects of the search mechanismsprovided by the map GUI 612 similarly provide access tolocation-agnostic social media content of friend users via the map GUI612.

Search Functionalities

In addition to viewing clustered stories by selection of the story icons631, 633, the user can access snaps by use of one or more searchfunctionalities provided by the map GUI 612. In this example embodiment,the map GUI 612 provides a number of different search mechanisms throughwhich the user can access targeted social media content, the searchmechanisms including:

-   -   a search bar 665 (FIG. 6A) that enables the entry of a text        string search query to cause display of search results        comprising a list of entries satisfying the search query (FIG.        10C);    -   location-based searches to search for social media content based        at least in part on their respective geo-tag information. In        some embodiments, these location-based search mechanisms        include:        -   a location-targeted search triggered by clicking or tapping            at a target location on the map 618 (illustrated            schematically in FIGS. 11A and 11B); and        -   a friend-based location search to locate social media            content based at least in part on the location of a selected            friend user; and    -   one or more friend-level access mechanisms that provide access        to social media content of the selected friend users. In a        particular embodiment, these include:        -   access to location-agnostic friend content via the user            icons, friend carousel 918 and/or individual friend panels            909; and        -   location-agnostic collection icons (e.g., Friend Story icons            932, as described below with reference to FIGS. 10A-10C)            displayed in association with respective friend users in a            list of search results.

Search Bar Mechanism

Two example embodiments of operation of a search mechanism provided viathe search bar 665 is illustrated schematically with reference to FIG.10A and FIGS. 10B-10D respectively. Discussing first the exampleembodiment of FIG. 10A, it will be seen that selection of the search bar665 (FIG. 6A) causes display of a drop-down search interface 1010 thatincludes a search box 1020 for entering a text-based search query, and anumber of lists of suggestions 1030 in respective user interface cellsdisplayed below the search box 1020. In the example embodiments of FIGS.10B-10D, individual suggestion cells correspond to individual snaps,stories, places, and/or friends. As can be seen with reference to acorresponding screenshot of the search interface 1010 in FIG. 10C, theparticular cells displayed as part of the suggestions 1030 aredynamically filtered in response to text entry in the search box 1020,to include only stories, friends, or places that satisfy the enteredsearch query.

When the user clicks on a selected cell in the list of suggestions 1030,the map GUI 612 in this example automatically navigates with a fly-overto the corresponding point on the map 618. If the selected cell is for aspike collection or cluster (also referred elsewhere herein as a spikestory), the snaps in the corresponding story starts playingsequentially. If the selected cell is a friend cell, the map viewport621 navigates to the corresponding friend bitmoji 640, and theassociated a friend panel 909 pops up, as the case may be. In theexample embodiment of FIG. 10A, at least some aspects of the displaysearch results or suggestions 1030 are location-agnostic, returningsearch results from any location, without any constraint based on theuser current location or the display area of the map 618. In particular,the “My Friends” section of the suggestions 1030 in the embodiment ofFIG. 10A includes any friends for whom the user has viewing permission.

Thus, features provided by the search interface 1010 of FIG. 10Ainclude:

-   -   Searching for a location anywhere in the world, and navigating        to it by selecting the corresponding suggestion cell; and    -   Viewing, before typing, suggestions 1030 of interesting social        media content, and, while or after typing, suggestions that        dynamically satisfies the search query. In the example        embodiment of FIG. 10A, these include:        -   Friends of the user, in section 1032, identified as a “My            Friends”;        -   Trending place stories, event stories, and/or spike stories            or clusters, irrespective of location, identified as            “Trending Locations” in section 1034;        -   Nearby place stories, event stories, and/or spike stories or            clusters, in section 1036, identified as “Popular Nearby.”

Note that the “My Friends” and “Trending Locations” in the exampleembodiment of FIG. 10A shows friends/content from all over the world,not just friends/content that shows up in your viewport. All friends areshown section 1032 in order of how recently seen. In contrast, the“Popular Nearby” entries have a location restraint, being in thisexample embodiment limited to stories falling within the area of thecurrent map viewport 621. In other embodiments, the location restraintis based on the user's current location, as indicated by the clientdevice 102.

The “Trending Locations” and “Popular Nearby” stories are rankedglobally according to a metric based on the underlying social mediaactivity, in this example embodiment being ranked according to thenumber of unique users contributing to a story. In some embodiments, thetrending locations may be ranked according to anomality metrics orinterestingness scores. In yet further embodiments, surfacing of storiesin the search interface 1010 can be based on raw snap volume, snapdensity over time, rate of increase in snap volume, or the like.

When users click on an entry in the search box dropdown, the map GUInavigates with a fly-over to the corresponding point on the map 618,after which the story/spike cluster starts playing, or friend panel 909pops up, as the case may be.

Searching functionality available via other example embodiments of themap GUI 612 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 10B-10D. FIGS.10C and 10D show behavior of the search interface during and aftertyping by the user in a search box forming part of the search interface1010. It will appreciated that items listed during and after typing arelimited to items (e.g., friends, places, events, or stories) thatsatisfy the search string entered thus far. Each one of a number ofdifferent sections of suggestions 1030, in which respective entries areranked by priority, will be described separately below. Differentembodiments may employ different combinations of these suggestionssections.

FRIENDS ON THE MAP—This section, indicated by reference numeral 1040 inFIG. 10B, shows friends that are that are on the map 618. In thisexample embodiment, the displayed friends are limited to friends who arevisible in the map viewport 621 (i.e., in the geographical area of themap 618 displayed immediately before launching the search interface1010). In other embodiments, the displayed friends include any friendswho are currently available somewhere on the map 618. In this example,the top four friends are listed, followed by a View More button ifnecessary. The user can tap on a friend cell to locate them on the map618.

Each friend cell includes, if available, a location-agnostic collectionicon in the form of a Friend Story icon 932. Any of the Friend Storyicons 932 can be tapped to view the corresponding friend story modally.Viewing of a story comprises sequential replay of the series of snapsincluded in the story. Each Friend Story icon 932 in this exampleembodiment comprises a user interface element in the form of a circularthumbnail to the right of the respective friend name. In this example,the stories thus playable include any of the friend's stories, withoutregard to any location information that may be associated with the storyor with any snaps forming part of the story, thus being in accordancewith the disclosed feature of map-based access to location-agnosticsocial media content of a target friend user. In other embodiments,however, the stories surfaced for replay are limited to those geo-taggedon the current map view.

In addition to the Friend Story icon 932, each friend entry in thisexample embodiment comprises an associated bitmoji, name, last seentimestamp, and associated location indicator. The listed friends areordered by update recency.

ALL FRIENDS—This section, identified by reference numeral 1050 in FIG.10C is similar to the My Friends section 1032 of FIG. 10A, in that itsurfaces friends that satisfy the search string, irrespective of whetheror not that friend is present on the map. In addition to a My Story icon832 were available, a user name and a score indicator is shown assubtext for each friend. In this example embodiment, the indicated scoreis a user score that is used throughout the application to represent auser's engagement level. In some embodiments, as previously described,tapping on a friend cell navigates the map to focus on the displaylocation of that friend. In this example embodiment, however, tapping oncell launches the chat interface 950 modally (see FIG. 9B). Dismissingthe chat brings the user back to the search interface 1010.

TOP STORIES—This section, identified by reference numeral 1042 in theexample embodiment of FIG. 10B, showcases the top stories from aroundthe world (selected by curators daily or ranked by quality score orviewer volume).

NEARBY STORIES—This section, identified by reference numeral 1044 inFIG. 10B, shows interesting event clusters nearby or within theviewport. These will be ranked by descending quality score. In someembodiments, the nearby stories can be ranked according to the anomalitymetric, or according to a ranking score based at least in part on theanomality metric. Thus, it will be seen that some embodiments of thedisclosure provide for social media application search interface thatautomatically surfaces ephemeral galleries based at least in part ongeographical proximity between the user device and geolocationsassociated with the respective galleries. Ranking of the surfacedephemeral galleries may be based at least in part on respectiveanomality metrics.

LOCATIONS—This section, identified by reference numeral 1060 in FIG.10D, shows all points of interest (POIs) or places (as defined by theCMS 1224) that matches the search query. In some embodiments, surfacingand ranking of locations satisfying the search string includes locationswith stories available for replay, i.e. having an associated placestory. Thus, for example, in the screenshot of FIG. 10D, Blue Lagoon isranked above Blue Bottle Coffee because it has an associatedcollaborative story, even though the latter is closer to the location ofthe user device 102.

If the place has a story, a story icon 1063 in the form of a thumbnailis in this example embodiment shown before the title (see FIG. 10D).Tapping the story icon 1063 (or anywhere in the cell) centers the placeon the map and auto-plays the story. If the place does not have athumbnail, tapping the cell in this example embodiment reverts to themap viewport 621, focusing on the relevant location, without playing anystory. Fallback prioritization is by proximity to current viewport(after POIs and/or places with playable stories have been prioritized tothe top).

Location Based Search Via Target Location on Map

As an alternative to entering a text-based search query, the user caninitiate a location-based search by selecting a target location on themap 618 separate from any of the story icons 631, 633, friend bitmojis640, or any other selectable user interface element overlaid on the map618. In this manner, the map 618 itself provides an interactive searchmechanism. An example embodiment of such a location-based search isillustrated schematically with reference to FIGS. 11A and 11B.

In response to the user's clicking or tapping on a particular locationon the map viewport 621, a search is conducted for social media itemswithin a predefined radius from the click- or tap location. In thisexample embodiment, such a location-based search does not return a listof graphical user interface elements that are selectable to playrespective items, but instead automatically triggers automatedsequential replay of items returned as a result of the search.

In the example embodiment of FIG. 11A, selection of a target location1110 is by haptic contact at the selected on-screen position, consistingof tapping the touchscreen 606 with a single finger 1120 of the user.Thus, tapping on a non-thumbnail place on the map 618 will radiate out asearch around the target location 1110, as illustrated schematically inFIG. 11B by a substantially circular geographical search area 1130centered on the target location 1110. Such a location-based search canhave a predefined search radius from the tap location. If any snaps arefound in the geographical search area 1130, they are automaticallyplayed back in sequence, as described before. If there are no snaps inthat area, the search bounces back to show no results found.

In some embodiments, such a location-based search is dynamicallyrestrained by a predefined search limit, so that the size of thegeographical search area 1130 can be variable in different instances. Insome embodiments, the search limit for a location-based search is apredefined maximum size defined by the number of snaps located in thesearch. In an example embodiment, the geographical search area 1130 willthus radiate out from the target location 1110 to a point where apredefined maximum number of snaps are found, after which all snaps fromthat area will start playing in sequence. Worded differently, apredefined search metric or limit is provided in some embodiments todetermine when the search should be stopped. As mentioned, the searchlimit may be an upper limit to the number of snaps located, with thesearch radiating out no further from the target location once the numberof snaps located reaches the upper limit. Thus, it will be seen thatdifferent location-based searches can return snaps from geographicalsearch areas 1130 that differ in size, depending on the density of snapsin the vicinity of the target location 1110.

In some example embodiments, such a location-triggered social mediacontent search (i.e., a search for social media content uploaded byother users triggered by a user click/tap at the target location 1110that does not coincide with a story icon 631/633 or friend bitmoji 640)can be configured automatically to exclude social media items includedin one or more of the clustered collections represented by respectiveicons 631, 633 on the map. Thus, in this embodiment, the social mediaapplication will not include in search results or replay any snaps thatare included in any of the place stories or any of the spike stories onthe map.

As mentioned, initiating a location-based search by clicking or tappingon a non-thumbnail area in this example embodiment triggers automaticreplay of snaps located within a geographical search area 1130 centeredon the target location 1110. In other embodiments, such a search inputby target location selection may cause display of a graphical userinterface element listing the snaps found within the search area, forexample including a thumbnail and username for each found snap. The usercan thereafter select from the list of found snaps those which are to bereplayed.

In some embodiments, the snaps located in a location-based search areplayed back in chronological sequence, as indicated by respectivetimestamp data indicating when the corresponding snap was uploaded. Insome example embodiments, a sequencing operation may be performed on thesubset of snaps identified in a location-based search, so that thereplay sequence does not strictly follow chronological sequence. In oneexample embodiment, an improved sequence for media playback in responseto a user tap on the map viewport is achieved by a sequence ofoperations comprising (a) finding all snaps in a fixed radius of the tappoint, (b) doing geo-temporal clustering of those snaps, (c) sortingthose clusters by distance from tap, and (d) sorting within the clustersby time.

In some embodiments, the location-based search is by default performedfor material uploaded within a predefined default time period. Forexample, the location-based search may identify all snaps that (a) arelocated within the geographical search area 1130; (b) are not includedin any story represented by a corresponding story icon 631/633; and (c)have timestamps within a default preceding ephemeral timespan. Thus, inan example embodiment in which a snap is by default available for 24hours via the map GUI 612, the location-based search may by defaultlocate snaps having timestamps indicating upload dates within the past24 hours.

In some embodiments, however, the preceding period with respect to whichthe search is performed is selectively variable by the user. Forexample, the search period timespan is automatically variable inresponse to an interval for which a search input gesture or signal isprovided by the user.

In embodiments in which the map GUI 612 is displayed on a touchscreen606 (as is the case in the example embodiment of FIGS. 11A and 11B), ageo-temporal search is triggered by haptic contact at a particularlocation within the map 618, with the search being geographicallycentered on a target location 1110 defined by the on-screen position ofthe haptic contact. In some embodiments, an input interval indicated bythe time period for which the haptic contact is maintained with thetouchscreen 606 automatically determines the preceding timespan withrespect to which the search is carried out. In such a case, for example,a tap on the screen triggers a geo-temporal search for material withinthe default time period, while a press and hold automatically triggers ageo-temporal search for material within an extended time period which islonger than the default time period. In one example embodiment, a tapinput triggers a geo-temporal search with a 12-hour timespan, while atap and hold triggers a geo-temporal search with a 24-hour timespan. Inother embodiments, the extended timespan is variable in graduatedfashion, so that multiple different search timespans are selectablebased on the press-and-hold interval. Note that the operations describedwith reference to the haptic contact on the touchscreen 606 can beperformed analogously by a click-and-hold input in instances where userinput is provided by a cursor control mechanism, such as a mouse.

Instead, or in addition, the search radius (i.e., the size of thegeographical search area 1130) may be variable based on the length ofthe input interval, with longer input intervals (e.g., a longer holdperiod) corresponding to a larger search radius.

Location Based Searching via Friend Location or for Friend Content

Some embodiments of the map GUI 612 provide functionalities forsearching for social media content with a location restraint based atleast in part on a location attribute of the selected friend user. Thelocation restraint may, for example, operate to limit the search tosocial media content geo-tagged within a predefined geographic rangecentered on a geographic location of the selected friend user.

For example, the user can in some example embodiments trigger alocation-based search with a location constraint based on the locationof a selected friend user. In one example embodiment, such alocation-based search with respect to a particular friend location canbe performed in a manner analogous to that described below with respectto a general location-based search as described with reference to FIGS.11A and 11B. The various considerations and features discussed forgeneral location-based searching can thus in some example embodimentsapply, mutatis mutandis, to location-based searching based on friendlocation.

In one example embodiment, a friend-targeted location-based search canbe triggered by user interaction with the friend icon or bitmoji 640 ofa target friend user. In such an example embodiment, a click or tapinput on the bitmoji 640 surfaces a menu or friend panel 909, while apress-and-hold input or a click-and-hold input automatically triggers alocation-based search such as that previously described, the search areabeing centered on the location of the selected user. Instead, or inaddition, a menu or friend panel 909 launched responsive to selection ofthe bitmoji 640 in some embodiments include a selectable user interfaceelement to trigger a search for social media content targeted with alocation constraint defined with respect to the location of the selecteduser.

In some embodiments, the friend-based social media content searchadditionally has an owner constraint such that the search results arelimited to social media items of the selected friend user. In otherembodiments or instances, the friend-based social media content searchmay search for content including but not limited to that uploaded orprovided by the selected friend user.

Other example embodiments in which social media content searches via themap GUI 612 has a location constraint based on a selected friend user'slocation include instances where (while map focus is on a selected user)search results are limited to items currently displayed in the mapviewport 621. The result section 1030 in the embodiment of FIG. 10Bprovides one such example. In other instances, the map GUI 612 providesfor the option of searching for content exclusively contributed by aselected target user. Responsive to triggering such a friend-specificsearch, the user can change the focus and/or zoom level of the mapviewport 621, with social media items surfaced in the map viewport 621being limited to social media content posted by the target friend user.

As described with reference to some example embodiments herein, a socialmedia application executing on the user device in some embodimentsgenerates a map GUI having a map viewport on which displayed geographiclocations of at least some friend users may differ from the actualgeographic locations of those users. In some embodiments, thefriend-centered location-based social media content search may becentered on the actual geographic location of the selected friend user,being distinct from a displayed location of the selected friend user onthe map GUI. In other embodiments, the search may be performed withreference to the displayed location of the selected friend user.

Overview of Map GUI Functionality

In use, the map GUI 612 thus surfaces different types of location-basedstories, which the user can view from the map 618. In the exampleembodiment of FIGS. 6A and 6B, the user can access via the map GUI 612snaps posted to Our Story from anywhere in the world. This can beachieved by navigating to different geographical areas displayed withinthe map viewport 621. In particular, the displayed geographical area canbe changed by zooming in or zooming out, and by moving the focus area ofthe map viewport 621. In the example embodiment of FIGS. 6A and 6B, inwhich the map GUI 612 is provided on a touchscreen 606, zooming in andzooming out can be achieved by haptic gestures in the form of apinch-out or a pinch-in haptic input. Movement of the map 618 within themap viewport 621, so as to change the displayed geographical area, isachieved by a haptic dragging gesture at any point on the map 618.

In this example embodiment, the map 618 is not selectively rotatable bythe user, having a fixed default orientation relative to the touchscreen606. In other embodiments, the map 618 may have a fixed orientationrelative to the Earth. In some embodiments, the map 618 is selectivelyrotatable, e.g., with all map content rotating around a fixed anchor.

As discussed at length above, in any particular map viewport 621, thedisplayed information can include:

-   -   the color-coded heatmap 625, visually displaying the        geographical distribution of snap uploading activity within a        preceding window (for example the default snap lifetime, in this        example 24 hours), allowing the user readily to identify places        with more or less activity. This enables the user more        effectively to target location-based searches via the map GUI        612. In some embodiments, the color-coded heatmap 625 is shown        only at a highest level of magnification. In this example        embodiment, however, the color-coded heatmap 625 is rendered at        all zoom levels.    -   Thumbnail icons 631, 633 for surfaced content forming part of        ephemeral galleries or stories. As described previously, these        include in this example embodiment place icons 631 for        geo-anchored stories associated with particular labeled        locations, and spike icons 633 for location-based stories        surfaced based on anomalous levels of geo-spatial activity.    -   Friend bitmojis 640 of friend users most frequently contacted by        the user who is logged in to the social media client application        104 executing on the client device 102 and by which the map GUI        612 is generated.

In some embodiments, no spike icons 633 are shown at some levels ofmagnification. In a particular example embodiment, no spike icons 633are shown at the original zoom level at which the map GUI 612 loads bydefault. In such an example, only the heatmap 625, friend bitmojis 640,and a number of place icons 631 are displayed on the map 618 at theoriginal zoom level. As the user zooms in, spike icons 633 are surfaced,representing respective clusters of activity.

It will be appreciated that different icons 631, 633 are surfaced atdifferent zoom levels. In this example embodiment, the map GUI 612displays no more than a predefined maximum number of place icons 631 andno more than a predefined maximum number of spike icons 633 in anyparticular view. For example, at any zoom level, the top three placestories (ranked by snap volume) are surfaced by displaying respectiveplace icons 631 in the map viewport 621. Likewise, at any zoom level,the top three spike stories (ranked by anomality or unusualness metricvalue) are surfaced by displaying respective spike icons 633 in the mapviewport 621.

In addition to viewing stories surfaced in the map 618 by respectivestory icons 631, 633, the user can use one or more of the searchfunctionalities described above to access any snap uploaded to Our Storyand whose gallery participation timer or availability lifetime has notyet expired.

It will be appreciated that the map GUI 612 is dynamic, in that theinformation displayed therein changes dynamically with time. New snapsmay continually be uploaded to Our Story, while the underlying socialmedia items upon which surfacing of the story icons 631, 633 andgeneration of the heatmap 625 is based can further continually changedue to the expiration of the availability of snaps. In this exampleembodiment, however, the information displayed in the map viewport 621is not dynamically updated during display of any particular geographicalarea. Instead, changing of the focus of the map viewport 621 isassociated with receiving updated information with respect to the storyicons 631, 633 and heatmap 625 from the application server 112.

It is a benefit of the map GUI 612 as described with the exampleembodiments that it provides for user-friendly and intuitive interactionwith geographically distributed social media content. The provision ofdifferent types of social media galleries (e.g., representedrespectively by spike icons 633 and place icons 631) provides a systemthat automatically surfaces only content which is most relevant foruser-selection in such a manner that the very large number of individualsocial media items that may be available via a social media platform isreduced in complexity, and that allows selection of targeted content inwhich the user might be interested.

Example System

FIG. 12 shows an example embodiment of a social media platform system1200 configured to provide a map-based graphical user interface for asocial media application, such as the map GUI 612 described withreference to FIGS. 6A-11B. The system 1200 and its associated componentscan in some embodiments be provided server-side, for example by thesocial media application server system 108 (FIG. 1 ). In such instances,the respective components of the system 1200 can be provided byexecution of the social media server application 114 on the applicationserver 112. In other embodiments, one or more components of the system1200 are provided client-side, for example by execution of the socialmedia client application 104 on a respective client device 102 (FIG. 1). In yet further embodiments, the system 1200 is providedcollaboratively server-side and client-side, the application server 112and a client device 102 in communication therewith being configured toprovide the respective system components by execution of the socialmedia client application 104 on the client device 102 and by executionof the social media server application 114 on the application server112.

The system 1200 includes a map engine 1208 to generate the map GUI 612,including the location-based social media information displayed in themap GUI 612. Thus, the map engine 1208 is configured to generate or tofacilitate generation of the map 618 (FIG. 6A) in the map viewport 621of the client device 102. To this end, the map engine 1208 can beconfigured to surface and cause adisplay particular story icons 631,633, to identify and cause display of respective friend bitmojis 640, togenerate heatmap information and display or cause display of a heatmap625 overlaid on the map 618, and to perform operations that provideother related functionalities of the map GUI 612 described withreference to FIGS. 6A-11B.

The system 1200 further includes a replay mechanism 1216 configured tocause automated sequential replay of the content of a set of socialmedia items or snaps on the client device 102. The replay mechanism 1216can thus cause sequential display of all of the snaps in a selectedplace story or spike story, as described previously herein. In someembodiments, the replay mechanism 1216 may provide for transmission ofthe set of snaps to the client device 102 in response to selection of acorresponding story icon 631/633. In some such embodiments, informationautomatically transmitted by the application server 112 to the clientdevice 102 upon initial rendering of a map view in the map GUI 612 caninclude a first few (e.g., 2 or 3) snaps for each of the story icons631, 633 surfaced in the map viewport 621. Upon selection of aparticular story icon 631/633, the first few snaps in the story areimmediately available for replay, with the subsequent snaps in the storybeing pulled from the application server 112 during presentation of thefirst few snaps.

The system 1200 also includes a content management system (CMS) 1224enabling server-side administrative functionalities. The CMS 1224provides an administration interface enabling operators to managecontent, for example by defining various attributes of different placeand/or event stories. The CMS 1224 in this example embodiment alsoincludes the collection management system 204 (FIG. 2 ) as previouslydescribed. The CMS 1224 is configured for the automated or semiautomatedcompilation of the respective social media galleries or stories aspreviously described. This may include curation or moderation ofrespective stories by use of a server-side curation interface providedby the CMS 1224.

The system 1200 further includes a search engine 1233 configured toprovide search functionalities with respect to social media content viathe map GUI 612. In particular, the search engine 1233 in this exampleembodiment provides for user-directed searching both via the searchinterface 1010 (FIGS. 10A-10D) and via location-based searching bydirect selection of a target location on the map 618 (FIGS. 11A-11B).

The system 1200 further includes a user location serving mechanism 1237configured to determine respective user locations, in this exampleembodiment indicated by the respective device locations, to determinefor each user the particular friend users who are viewable via the mapGUI 612, and to provide the respective user location information fordisplay of associated user icons at corresponding display locations. Theuser location serving mechanism 1237 in some embodiments comprise, aspart of the server system 108, a user location datastore and a per-useraccess control list (ACL) that lists the particular friend usersviewable by each user. In some embodiments, the per-user ACL specifiesrespective viewing level granularity for each viewable user. The userlocation serving mechanism 1237 in such example embodiments isadditionally configured to determine and manage respective user displaygranularity. This includes calculating non-precise display locations forsome users, and causing display of a corresponding user icons at thenon-precise display locations.

The system 1200 also includes an analyzer 1250 that is configured toprocess social media activity data to calculate anomality metric valuesfor different areas that is to be served by the map GUI 612. In someembodiments, the analyzer 1250 generates a historical model of thegeospatial distribution of social media activity, using a probabilisticrendering of individual snaps. Activity data from a current or near livetime window is mapped to the historical model and a respective anomalityscore for different respective locations in the map is calculated. Suchanomality scores can be used by the map engine 1208 to surface contentvia the map GUI 612, to determine the size of spike icons 633, and therendering of heatmap information, or the like.

Example Methods Places CMS

Place Restriction and/or Exclusion

Another aspect of the disclosure relates to mechanisms or tools toprovide to one or more administrators of a social media application oneor more administrative functionalities with respect to differentlocations in the map. As will be described below, such administrativefunctionality can include the ability to select places that are to bedisplayed on the map GUI 612, and the ability to blacklist or otherwiserestrict or vary user access to selected areas of the map. Suchblacklisting or restriction of availability of social media items basedon geo-tag information can include feeding in data from moderation toidentify places from which high numbers of bad snaps originate.Automated identification of problematic areas in this manner facilitatesblacklisting or, for example, age restriction of the identifiedproblematic areas.

Some embodiments provide for automated geographically-based restrictionor moderation based on user feedback or complaint informationcontemplated. In one example embodiment in an availability parameter fora defined geographical area (also referred to herein as a “place”, aswill be described in greater detail below) can automatically be sent tobe age-restricted or excluded when a volume or a frequency of complaintsor reports received with respect to social media items (e.g., snaps)received from within the defined area exceeds a predefined threshold. Inother embodiments, such an automated identification of problematic areasresults in automated suggestion or surfacing of such places in acuration interface 1229 (FIG. 12 ), where a human administrator candetermine and apply the appropriate setting.

These and other functionalities will be described in greater detailbelow as being provided by an internal administrator platform in theexample form of an internal website also referred to herein as thePlaces Content Management System (Places CMS 2048, see FIGS. 12 and 20), via which multiple administrators can cooperatively performadministrative functions with respect to different geographic places andtheir attributes. It will be appreciated, however, that an analogousinternal administration tool or mechanism may be provided in a differentform, and that the functionalities described herein apply equally tosuch alternative architectures.

The Places CMS 2048 provides administrators with the ability to labelparticular geographic locations with a thumbnail and associated label.In embodiments where place icons 631 are displayed on the map GUI 612both for administrator-defined places and for ad-hoc places based on thehigh activity (e.g., spike icons 633 for spike stories or clusters),these different types of place icons 631 can be distinguished by theassociated label. Note that some embodiments may provide for display onthe map of gallery icons in association only with administrator-definedplaces, but not for ad hoc places based on high or anomalous activitylevels.

Such an example embodiment is displayed in FIG. 11A, in which thelabeled place icons 631 Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park, and EmpireState Building, are places defined and labeled via the Places CMS 2048,while the other, unlabeled icons (here comprising circular thumbnailswithout associated labels) are, as previously described, spike icons 633for ad hoc geo-anchored ephemeral galleries surfaced based on highactivity levels and/or high levels of anomality. In other embodiments,the only geo-anchored gallery icons displayed on the map are foradministrator-defined places. In such cases, however, the particularpredefined places in the current map viewport 621 for which thecorresponding place icons 631 are displayed on the map GUI 612 areautomatically determined based on a social media activity metrics, suchas an anomality level discussed elsewhere.

For areas of the map that permanently or regularly have high levels ofactivity, administrators may choose to define and label such places witha permanent “popular place” thumbnail, as is the case for the threelabeled thumbnails shown in FIG. 11A.

As mentioned, the Places CMS 2048 is an internal website where placescan be defined. As shown in the FIG. 12 , the Places CMS 2048 provides acuration interface 1229 when accessed by an administrator using aterminal device in communication with the Places CMS 2048. It will beappreciated that the curation interface 1229 is displayed on the userdevice or terminal of the administrator.

The Places CMS 2048 is in this example embodiment used to cause displayof places on the map, to blacklist places from the map, and toselectively vary availability parameters for different geographicalareas. FIG. 13A shows a screenshot of an curation interface 1229 for thePlaces CMS 2048.

An existing feature of some social media platforms is the ability forusers to define geo-fences, and to apply geofilters to social mediaitems with geo-tags located within respective geo-fences. A geofilter inthis context is a decorative overlay applied to a social media item suchas a photo or a snap. In this example embodiment the Places CMS 2048 useexisting geofilters to assist in building a places list. Such generationand curation of the places list can include:

Displaying a predefined number of top places in the tool, based on howpopular the filter is (if possible). Instead, place popularity can bemeasured by how many snaps on average are taken in the fence and sharedto Our Story.

In this example, geofilters are used only for or the types of places theadministrator wishes to label, so geo-fences for neighborhoods, cities,etc. are in this instance excluded.

The geofilter fence is used as place fence. The place fence is in thisexample also used when a user taps on the place in the map 618,responsive to which a resultant search is limited to social media itemswith geo-tags located within that place fence. Such a search is avariant of the location-based search described with reference to FIGS.11A and 11B, with the difference that the search area is limited to thedefined boundaries of the particular place within which the targetlocation is situated.

If the geofilter has a center-point, that centerpoint is used fordisplaying the place on the map GUI 612. Otherwise a center of the fencepolygon is used as centerpoint of the place fence.

To enable display of a place on the map, the place is named and athumbnail is assigned to the place via the Places CMS 2048. In thisinstance, the administrator can use the original geofilter name if it isdeemed appropriate. Otherwise, the administrator can manually label therespective places. As to selection of a thumbnail, the administrator isenabled to page through a predefined number of the most recent snaps inthe relevant polygon (in this example embodiment, 100 stats), from whicha particular snap can be selected for use as thumbnail image. In otherembodiments, a thumbnail image for the relevant place may beautomatically selected, e.g., the most recent thumbnail.

As described previously, the Places CMS 2048 additionally provides thefunctionality of blacklisting or otherwise restricting the surfacing ofsocial media content to the map GUI 612 based on the geographical originof the respective social media items. FIG. 13A shows a screenshot of oneexample of the curation interface 1229 provided by the Places CMS 2048for defining places as particular geographical areas and/or forassigning different availability parameters to different defined places.In this example embodiment, places are by default assigned a generalavailability parameter, meaning that access to snaps from that place isunrestricted. The administrator can modify the availability parameter tobe blacklisted/excluded (in which case snaps from that area areunavailable to all users), or aged restricted (in which case snaps fromthat area are available only to users older than a predefined thresholdage). It will be appreciated that other availability parameters andstatuses may be applied in other embodiments. The default availabilityparameter may in other embodiments also be different, for examplerequiring whitelisting by the administrator for access.

Note that the entries for hidden and unreviewed for some places in thescreenshot of FIG. 13A pertains to the visibility by way of theassociated story icons, note to whether or not snaps from the associateplace is viewable. Thus, a snap originating from a hidden, or unreviewedplace can still be viewed via the map GUI 612 (e.g. by one of thedescribed search mechanisms). In contrast, snaps from blacklisted oraged-restricted places cannot thus be accessed.

As shown in the screenshot of FIG. 13B, the curation interface 1229includes an “Add New Place” UI 1305 that provides an administrative userthe ability to draw a polygon over one-off areas of the map to blacklistor otherwise restrict. This is achieved in this example by adding a newplace (using UI 1305), and marking it as “blacklisted” in the curationinterface 1229 of FIG. 13A. In the screenshot of FIG. 13A, an instanceis shown in which the availability status of Cheetah's Strip Club hasbeen set to “blacklisted,” using a dropdown status selector mechanism1313. It will be appreciated that the blacklisting functionality canregularly be used to exclude defined areas from the social mediaapplication, so that social media items with geo-tags indicating originfrom within the blacklisted area are excluded from accessibility tousers via the map GUI 612. Areas thus blacklisted will typically beareas associated with inappropriate content, such as adult events orlocations.

As mentioned, the Places CMS 2048 in some example embodiments providesthe functionality to provide geographically-based content filtering notonly in a binary manner in which any particular location is eitherincluded or excluded from the map for all users, but allows forvariation in the availability of social media items from a particulargeographical area based at least in part on one or more attributes ofthe requesting user. In a particular example embodiment, administratorsare enabled to associate respective age ratings to various selectedgeographical areas, responsive to which social media content from thoseareas are available via the map GUI 612 only to users older than therespective age ratings.

Thus, for example, the administrator can, by using the Places CMS 2048,create a place associated with a particular adult establishment bydrawing a polygon around it on the curation interface 1229, and can thenassign an age restriction of 18 years to the defined place. Thereafter,snaps originating from that adult establishment will be viewable via themap GUI 612 only by users whose ages (e.g., as indicated age attributeassociated with the respective users in a database of the social mediaplatform) are greater than 18 years. It will be seen that, in thismanner, different content is available on the map GUI 612 to differentusers, based on their respective user attributes.

As exemplified by the preceding description, one aspect of thedisclosure thus provides for a method comprising making available socialmedia content on a social media platform via a map-based GUI (map GUI612) generated on a user device such that availability of respectivesocial media items is variable based on associated geo-tag information.

In some embodiments, a number of defined geographical areas may beblacklisted, with any social media item having geo-tag informationcorresponding to one of the blacklisted areas being unavailable forviewing by users via the map GUI 612. Instead, or in addition, variousdefined geographical areas may be defined as restricted areas, with anysocial media item having geo-tag information corresponding to one of therestricted areas being available for viewing by users via the map GUI612 only if one or more user attributes satisfy predefined availabilitycriteria. In some embodiments, the availability criteria may define agerestriction for respective restricted areas, so that social mediacontent from the restricted areas are available being only by users whoare older than a predefined threshold age. Different age restrictionsmay be applied to different restricted areas.

Some embodiments thus provide a method comprising:

-   receiving administrator input assigning an availability parameter    for a particular geographic area, the assigned availability    parameter being different from a default availability parameter    associated with geographical areas that do not have an    administrator-assigned availability parameter associated therewith;-   generating a map-based GUI (e.g., map GUI 612) on a user device, the    map GUI having an interactive map via which geo-tagged social media    items are accessible for viewing on the user device; and-   making available geo-tagged social media content via the map GUI,    the method comprising restricting availability of each social media    item having associated geo-tag information corresponding to the    particular geographic area based at least in part on the assigned    availability parameter.

The method may include, for each social media item, for each socialmedia item: determining a location of the social media item based ongeo-tagging information associated therewith; determining anavailability parameter associated with the determined location; anddetermining an availability status for each social media item based onthe respective associated availability parameter. As mentionedpreviously, the availability parameter for at least some geographicalareas in some embodiments comprise an age restriction value. In suchcases, the restricting of availability of the social media contentcomprises, for each social media item originating from a restrictedarea: determining a respective age restriction value corresponding tothe location of the social media item; determining an age valueassociated with a user associated with the particular instance of themap GUI 612; and making the social media item accessible via the map GUI612 conditional upon the age value of the user's being greater than athreshold age indicated by the corresponding age restriction value.

Some embodiments provide for geographical variation in automated socialmedia content filtering and/or quality assessment. An administrator canin such embodiments define different filtering/quality estimationparameters (e.g., such as the by use of the techniques described belowwith reference to FIGS. 16-17C) for different geographical areas (e.g.,defined by administrator-drawn polygons via the Places CMS 2048 asdescribed above). The administrator can in such cases, for example,specify that different metadata fields and/or different qualityassessment models be used for quality-based content filtering fordifferent geographical areas.

To facilitate the identification of places that are candidates forblacklisting and/or age restriction, the Places CMS 2048 has thefunctionality of surfacing places that have been identified by userreports. These blacklisting candidates are surfaced in curationinterface 1229 of FIG. 13A as Source=“Reported,” based on user reportsof inappropriate or objectionable content. In some embodiments, thePlaces CMS 2048 provides a restriction resolution channel allowing usersto contest blacklisting, age restriction, or any other form ofrestriction of availability associated with their respective area.

Turning now to FIG. 14 , therein is shown an example method 1400 inwhich geographical variants in availability of social media items via asocial media platform is implemented. The method 1400 is again describedwith reference to the earlier described map GUI 612 and Places CMS 2048,but it should be appreciated that the described techniques are notlimited to these example embodiments.

At operation 1412, different nondefault availability parameters areapplied respective defined geographical areas (further, places). E.g.,using the curation interface 1229 (FIGS. 13A) some places areblacklisted, other places are age restricted, and yet further places areleft with the default availability setting.

In some embodiments, such place restriction can be implemented orprompted in an automated or semiautomated process comprising, atoperation 1404 accessing moderation input or complaint informationindicating user complaints or reports with respect to snaps originatingfrom different places. At operation 1408, a list of candidate places forrestriction is identified, e.g. based on an above-threshold complaintvolume, frequency, or spike. Based on the candidate list, restrictionsuggestions are surfaced, in some embodiments, in the curation interface1229. In one embodiment, identified candidate places are automaticallyblacklisted, with the administrator being able to change theavailability parameter if it is deemed to have been applied incorrectly.

At operation 1416, social media content is received in the form ofgeo-tagged social media items (e.g., snaps) posted to the social mediaplatform for general availability (e.g., submitted to Our Story),forming a set of snaps potentially available via the map GUI 612.

At operation 1420, the map engine 2008 automatically filters out allsnaps received from places that are blacklisted. This provides a filterset of snaps available via the map GUI 612.

At operation 1424, the client device 102 sends the request or call forviewing a particular region within the map viewport 621. In responsethereto, the map engine 2008 identifies an age value associated with theuser account of the requesting client device 102, and then, at operation1428, filters out or prevents access to all snaps to which the user isnot allowed access, based on their age, thus allowing access only to anage-filtered set of snaps. This process may, for example, be responsiveto a location-based search in a particular area. Instead, or inaddition, the age filtering to the inclusion of snaps in storiesaccessible via the map GUI 612 (e.g., place stories, spike stories,and/or event stories).

Finally, the requested content (excluding any filtered out snaps) isdelivered to the client device 102 for display thereon.

The above-described aspect of the disclosure includes the variousexample embodiments listed below as examples 1-20, which are to be readin view, at least, of the foregoing part of the description.

Variable Catchment Interval for Social Media Availability by Geography

Instead of, or in addition to, enabling restriction of access toparticular geographical areas, the Places CMS 2048 in some embodimentsprovides administrative functionality to provide variation by geographyin an interval subsequent to posting for which social media items are(a) made available via the map GUI 612, and/or (b) are included insocial media content to generate, for example, heat map information orthe like. As discussed at length previously, ephemeral social mediacontent is social media content that is available via the relevantsocial media platform for only a predefined limited amount of time.Thus, for example, a snap uploaded to the user's “My Story” has, durablein some common implementations, an availability interval or lifetime of24 hour subsequent to the time of posting. In the terminology usedfurther herein, the My Story gallery thus has a catchment interval of 24hours, by which is meant that only items uploaded to that gallery withinthe last 24 hours are available for viewing via the gallery.

In some embodiments, the Places CMS 2048 allows an administrator todefine different catchment intervals for different geographical areas(e.g., places as defined by the curation interface 1229 of FIG. 13B).Thus, for example, some areas with high levels of activity and/or inwhich the recency of activity is deemed by the administrator to be ofparticular importance can be assigned a reduced catchment intervalrelative to a default catchment interval. In one example, Times Squareis assigned a catchment interval of four hours, as opposed to a default24 hour catchment interval.

Instead, or in addition, some areas can be assigned an increasedcatchment interval relative to the default catchment interval. Suchincreased catchment intervals are in some embodiments defined on an adhoc basis based on the occurrence of unusual events associated withparticular geographic areas. For example, the administrator can define ageographical area in which a hurricane has made landfall, and assign anincreased catchment interval of 48 hours to that area, as opposed to thedefault catchment interval of 24 hours.

In some embodiments, geographical variation in catchment intervalapplies exclusively to the replay availability of the respective socialmedia items, e.g., via place stories, spike stories, and/orlocation-based searches relevant to the defined geographical area. Insuch cases, other social media activity data, such as the heatmapgenerated based on a level of activity and/or anomality or unusualnessmetric values are unaffected by administrative definition of differentcatchment intervals for different geographical areas. Thus, for example,the variable size of a spike icon 633 is in some embodiments determinedby an anomality value calculated for the associated area based on adefault catchment interval, even though the associated area has anondefault assigned catchment interval.

In other embodiments, variation in catchment intervals appliesuniversally both to accessibility of individual social media items, andto other information and content displayed on the map GUI 612 asdescribed elsewhere herein. In such instances, for example, the variablesize of a spike icon 633 is determined by the anomality value calculatedfor the associated area based on a nondefault assigned catchmentinterval.

Turning now to FIG. 15 , therein is shown an example method 1500 ofenabling the generation of a map-based graphical user interface for asocial media platform for ephemeral content, allowing for variation incatchment interval by geographical location. The example method 1500 isagain described with reference to the example map GUI 612 discussedearlier.

At operation 1517, an administrator assigns, using an embodiment of thecuration interface 1229 that has catchment-assignment functionality,different respective catchment intervals to different geographicalareas, such that at at least two different geographical areas havedifferent respective catchment intervals. For the purposes of thisdescription, consider that a particular defined place (say the EmpireState Building whose place icon 631 is shown in FIG. 6A) is assigned acatchment interval of four hours, as opposed to a default 12 hourcatchment interval.

At operation 1524, a request for the replay of snaps with respect to atarget area is received from a client device 102. In one instance, thiscomprises the user selecting the place icon 631 for the Empire StateBuilding. In another instance, such a request may comprise alocation-based search, either via the search bar 665 or by atap-triggered search at a target location close to the Empire StateBuilding.

At operation 1531, the respective set of snaps originating at that place(i.e. from within the defined boundaries of the place) is limited basedon the corresponding catchment interval. In particular, the result setincludes only snaps whose timestamp is no older than the correspondingcatchment interval. Typically, the limiting of the result set occursbefore receiving of the request. For example, the set of snaps togetherforming the place story for the Empire State Building is on an ongoingbasis filtered to exclude any snaps falling outside of its four hourcatchment interval.

Responsive to the request, the map engine 2008 serves the result set tothe client device 102, at operation 1538. Note that result sets ofdifferent age span will thus be returned for different areas within thesame map view. For example, no returned snap originating at the EmpireState Building will have been posted more than four hours ago, while alocation-based search in an adjacent area can return snaps as old as 12hours.

These mechanisms beneficially allow for manageable snap collection sizesfor areas of different snap density, thus reducing computational andcommunication load on various elements of the server system 108.

In this manner, different catchment intervals can be assigned todifferent geographical areas. These assignments can be permanent,semipermanent, or ad hoc. In the described example embodiment, catchmentinterval assignment is performed manually by an administrator. In someembodiments, however, catchment interval assignment can be at leastpartially automated, based on the identification of candidates forcatchment interval variation based on predefined social media activitymetrics. In one embodiment, the Places CMS 2048 is configuredautomatically to assign modified catchment intervals (or to surface alist of suggestions in the curation interface 1229) to defined placesfor which the respective snap frequency exceeds a threshold value formore than a threshold number of days within a predefined time window.

The above-described aspect of the disclosure includes the variousexample embodiments listed below as examples 21-31, which are to be readin view, at least, of the foregoing part of the description.

Automated Quality Estimation and Curation of Social Media Content

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for automated curation ofcollaborative social media collections (e.g., generally accessibleephemeral galleries, such as social media items posted to Live or OurStory in previously described example embodiments), based at least inpart on an automated quality estimation for individual social mediaitems. Thus, for example, the platform server system 108 for the socialmedia platform previously described in some example embodiments includesa quality assessment system 2054 that calculates a quality estimate forrespective geo-tagged social media items posted to Our Story. A qualityfilter is then applied based at least in part on the quality estimates,so that at least some user-provided social media items are automaticallyexcluded from availability via the map GUI 612. In one exampleembodiment, any social media item with an automatically calculatedquality score lower than a predefined threshold value is excluded frominclusion in any place story or from location-based search results viathe map GUI 612.

FIG. 16 shows an example method 1600 for automated curation of socialmedia content based at least in part on an automated quality estimationfor respective social media items (in the present example embodiment,snaps). At operation 1609, a target set of snaps are retrieved forautomated assessment. The target set of snaps can some embodiments beall snaps uploaded to the platform within a certain preceding timewindow, a collection of snaps associated with a place or event forproviding corresponding story, or any other appropriate set of snaps.

At operation 1627, a quality estimate value or quality score isautomatically determined for each snap. In this example embodiment,quality score determination is performed by a trained neural network.The method 1600 therefore includes the prior operations of, at operation1618, labeling a set of training snaps with quality values, and, atoperation 1636, training the neural network by feeding to it the set oflabeled training snaps.

At operation 1645, the original set of snaps is filtered based on therespective quality scores for the individual snaps. For example, orsnaps with a below-threshold quality score can in some embodiments beassigned a decline acceptability status, thereby being automatically beexcluded from the original set. At operation 1654, the filtered subsetof snaps is made available for public access via the map GUI 612 of thesocial media platform.

It will thus be seen that, in some embodiments, the automated qualityestimation is performed using machine learning techniques, for examplecomprising the training of a deep neural network with example socialmedia items (e.g., snaps) having varying quality assessment values andbeing associated, at operation 1618, with respective attributes orsignals. Based on training a model in such a manner, an AI engine (see,for example FIGS. 17A-17D) thereafter performs automated qualityassessment of new social media items submitted thereto. For ease ofdescription, automated quality assessment is further described withreference to snaps, but it should be appreciated that the describedtechniques applies similarly or analogously to other social media items,such as images and augmented messages.

Such quality assessment is in some example embodiments based at least inpart on visual media content (e.g., photographic or video content)and/or audio data of the relevant snaps. In this example embodiment, themachine learning model is trained on a labeled data set created using alabeling policy illustrated by the example labeling flowchart 1800 ofFIG. 18A-18C. As will be seen with reference to the labeling flowchart1800, each snap in the training data set is assessed by a human operatorbased on the content of the respective snap, and is assigned a qualitylabel. In this example embodiment, the quality levels are binary, beingidentified either as good or bad based on the decision flowchart 1800.

The score from the trained machine learning model thus generates a scoreas to the content of new snaps based on the trained model. FIG. 17Aschematically illustrates an example embodiment of such a scheme. Duringtraining, the visual media content 1707 (further, simply content 1707,which can in some embodiments include audio content) for each snap isfed with an associated label 1714 to train an AI engine 1721. Atassessment, a content quality score (CQS) is generated by the AI engine1721 for the content 1707 of each snap submitted thereto. In thisexample embodiment, quality assessment and filtering is basedexclusively on the content quality score, so that the quality score (QS)can in this case be considered to be equal to the content quality score.

Instead, or in addition, at least some signals on which automatedquality assessment is based in some embodiments include metadataassociated with respective snaps. Some embodiments thus provide forinclusion of device and/or application metadata in association withrespective snaps, meant to use this information as a signal (amongstother signals) when training a model to derive a quality score forsnaps. For example videos that are very shaky (as can in some instancesbe indicated by metadata derived from device accelerometers duringimage-capture) can in some instances be excluded from the map GUI 612.

A nonexhaustive list of metadata fields that is in one exampleembodiment included by the client-side instance of the social mediaapplication (at least some of which are obtained from the deviceoperating system, such as android or iOS clients), include:

-   -   Number of times the camera switched from back-facing to        front-facing while taking the snap.    -   Shakiness of video recording. In some embodiments, this may be        indicated by device accelerometer readings.    -   Speed of movement of the device during snap capture.    -   Altitude of the device during snap capture.    -   Whether or not the user is an official account or a        collaborator.    -   Whether or not the flashlight of the device was used during        video recording.    -   Device camera quality, e.g., determined with reference to device        model.    -   Whether the user is a tourist or a local with respect to the        location of the snap indicated by geo-tag information. For these        purposes a historical geographical information associated with        the device can be compared with the geographical location of the        relevant social media item to identify whether or not the user        was travelling when the snap was captured.    -   The nature of an internet connection, e.g., whether the use is        on WiFi vs. WWAN.

In some embodiments, in addition to these metadata fields, the contentquality score from a machine learning model trained on a manuallylabeled data set is produced and is associated with each respectiveuploaded snap as an additional metadata field. Note that the estimatedcontent quality store is thus used in some embodiments in combinationwith one or more of the additional metadata fields derived from deviceinformation or from application information (as listed above) tocalculate the quality score upon which quality estimation and filteringis based.

In some embodiments, such quality estimation is performed by a trainedmachine learning model. FIG. 17B schematically illustrates one suchexample embodiment. During training, an AI engine 1729 is trained byfeeding to it snap metadata 1726 together with associated contentquality scores (e.g., as determined by AI engine 1721). Bear in mindthat the AI engine 1721 and 1729 are described as separate entities forease of description, and can in other embodiments be separate neuralnetworks provided by a common AI engine.

During assessment (FIG. 17B) a content quality score is determined by AIengine 1721 for the content 1707 of each snap. AI engine 1729 thereafterdetermines a respective quality score for the snap based on is contentquality score and the associated metadata 1726.

Instead, as illustrated schematically by the example embodiment of FIG.17C, the content quality score may be used together with at least someof the other described metadata fields for calculating a qualityestimation algorithmically. Thus, at assessment, the content qualityscore is determined as before by AI engine 1721, with the result fed toa deterministic or algorithmic analyzer 1736 forming part of the qualityassessment system 2054. In some embodiments, the analyzer 1736 outputs aquality score, as before. In other instances, a binary acceptabilityvalue (i.e., include or exclude) output may be provided.

In yet further embodiments, such as the example embodiment of FIG. 17D,a labeling flowchart analogous to the example of FIG. 18A-18B caninclude one or more decision points based at least in part on metadatafields based on user device sensor data and/or information. The dataflows for this scheme at training and at assessment are evident fromFIG. 17D.

In some embodiments, filtered-out snaps are excluded from all aspects ofthe map GUI 612, for example being excluded from social mediaactivity/anomality calculations and heatmap rendering, as well as beingunavailable as part of any publicly available ephemeral gallery, placestory, or location-based search. In other embodiments, snaps that arefiltered out from online availability due to below-threshold qualityscores are factored into heatmap- or other activity calculations, butare unavailable for viewing via the map GUI 612.

As mentioned previously, this metadata is stored in a server-sidedatabase in association with respective snaps, and is used to filter outbad snaps from the map GUI 612. Note that the collected database issecured and kept private to ensure user confidentiality.

Note that the auto-estimation and filtering features apply in someembodiments only to snaps published or posted for general availability(e.g., submissions to “Our Story”), and that no such quality filteringis applied to submissions to a user's “My Story.” In this context, theterm “general availability” means that the respective social media itemis posted to the social media platform for general public access (e.g.,being posted to Our Story), as opposed to being available only to userswho have a defined relationship to the posting user (e.g., being postedto My Story, and being available for viewing only by friends of theparticular user).

The above-described aspect of the disclosure includes the variousexample embodiments listed below as examples 32-45, which are to be readin view, at least, of the foregoing part of the description.

Location-Based Memories

In addition to providing access to ephemeral social media content duringits limited availability interval, the map GUI 612 in some exampleembodiments provides location-based access to a user's own expiredsocial media content. In this context, ephemeral social media contentmeans social media items that are made available on the relevant socialmedia platform for only a limited period of time (i.e., its availabilityinterval or lifetime), and is thereafter inaccessible for online viewingby others. Thus, for example, a default availability interval for snapson some existing social media platforms is 24 hours. After expiry of theavailability interval, ephemeral social media items are no longeraccessible to others via the social media platform, and is referred toherein as expired social media items or expired snaps.

A user may, however, wish to view social media items uploaded bythemselves even after expiry of the availability interval. To this end,the map GUI 612 such as that described herein in some embodimentsprovides for location-based user access to their own expired snaps. Suchfunctionality is also referred to herein as Memories.

In one embodiment, the map GUI 612 enables a user to switch to ahistoric, (also known as Memories mode), and then to explore their ownexpired snaps by the map GUI 612 by geography, and/or to search theirown expired snaps with a geographical constraint. The map GUI 612 inMemory mode can in some embodiments provide for user specification of asearch period, thus enabling the user to search for expired snaps postedon specified date or specified span of dates.

In some embodiments, a blanket search may be launched with respect to ageographical area currently shown in a map viewport 621, with a resultof the search being limited to expired snaps with geo-tag informationcorresponding to the current map viewport 621. Instead, or in addition,a location-based search for expired snaps (either universally or for aspecified limited time period) can be launched by clicking or tapping onthe map GUI 612 at a selected location, analogously to thelocation-based search for Live snaps described earlier.

Some embodiments thus provide substantially equivalent searchfunctionalities for the user's own expired snaps as are provided forsearching for non-expired snaps (i.e., live ephemeral content) by allusers. Additionally, the map GUI 612 in some embodiments provides fordisplay of social media activity information with respect to the user'sown historical snap activity as is provided for live content (see, e.g.,operation 1970 in FIG. in 19).

FIG. 19 shows an example method 1900 of providing a map-based graphicaluser interface that enables location-based access to expired ephemeralcontent of the requesting user. These functionalities are furtherdescribed with reference to the example embodiment of a map GUI 612previously discussed with respect to other aspects of the disclosure.

At operation 1910, the map GUI 612 operates in normal mode, in which itprovides access, at operation 1930, to live snaps uploaded by all usersfor general availability (e.g., posted to Our Story), using the variousmechanisms described previously.

The user can, however, switch the map GUI 612 to a historical mode, atoperation 1920. In some embodiments, the map GUI 612 includes a togglethat can be operated to switch back and forth between normal mode andmemories mode. Instead, or in addition, searching in memories mode cancomprise launching a memories search interface and/or text box.

In memories mode, the user can, at operation 1950, explore their ownexpired snaps via the map 618 of the map GUI 612. This can comprisenavigating to an area of interest, and, at operation 1960, triggering alocation-based search by tapping at a target location. In response, alocation-based search similar to that described with reference to FIGS.11A-11B is performed, with a result set being limited to expired snapsof the requesting user. The returned result set is reproduced on therequesting client device 102, at operation 1970.

Instead, the user can, at operation 1960, enter a search string,responsive to which the search results are returned, at operation 1970.In some embodiments, the result set for such a search is limited tothose expired snaps with geo-tag information within the current mapviewport 621.

During exploration via the map, at operation 1950, the map GUI 612 insome embodiments also provides for the display of geographicallydistributed historical activity information for the users on snaphistory. For example, the map 618 in some embodiments includes a heatmap625 that indicates the geographical distribution of snap density of theusers expired snaps (i.e., the number of snaps per unit area). Instead,or in addition, expired stories and/or ad hoc stories based on expiredsnaps can be surfaced on the map 618 in memories mode.

A benefit of the location-based Memories functionality is that is toprovide the user with the ability to investigate their historical mediaactivity more intuitively and accurately than is otherwise the case.Thus, for example, when a user wishes to view a particular snap postedfrom a known location (e.g., a concert or sporting event), can morereadily locate the target snap by navigating to the relevant location onthe map GUI 612 and launching a location-based Memories search withrespect to that location. Absent such location-target historicalsearching, the user would require more information on the precise dateand/or other tag information in order accurately to target the desiredsnap.

The above-described aspect of the disclosure includes the variousexample embodiments listed below as examples 46-57, which are to be readin view, at least, of the foregoing part of the description.

Example System

FIG. 20 shows an example embodiment of a social media platform system2000 configured to provide a map-based graphical user interface for asocial media application, such as the map GUI 612 described withreference to FIGS. 6A-11B. The system 2000 and its associated componentscan in some embodiments be provided server-side, for example by thesocial media application server system 108 (FIG. 1 ). In such instances,the respective components of the system 2000 can be provided byexecution of the social media server application 114 on the applicationserver 112. In other embodiments, one or more components of the system2000 are provided client-side, for example by execution of the socialmedia client application 104 on a respective client device 102 (FIG. 1). In yet further embodiments, the system 2000 is providedcollaboratively server-side and client-side, the application server 112and a client device 102 in communication therewith being configured toprovide the respective system components by execution of the socialmedia client application 104 on the client device 102 and by executionof the social media server application 114 on the application server112.

The system 2000 includes a map engine 2008 to generate the map GUI 612,including the location-based social media information displayed in themap GUI 612. Thus, the map engine 2008 is configured to generate or tofacilitate generation of the map 618 (FIG. 6A) in the map viewport 621of the client device 102. To this end, the map engine 2008 can beconfigured to surface and cause display particular story icons 631, 633,to identify and cause display of respective friend bitmojis 640, togenerate heatmap information and display or cause display of a heatmap625 overlaid on the map 618, and to perform operations that provideother related functionalities of the map GUI 612 described withreference to FIGS. 6A-11B.

The system 2000 further includes a replay mechanism 2016 configured tocause automated sequential replay of the content of a set of socialmedia items or snaps on the client device 102. The replay mechanism 2016can thus cause sequential display of all of the snaps in a selectedplace story or spike story, as described previously herein. In someembodiments, the replay mechanism 2016 may provide for transmission ofthe set of snaps to the client device 102 in response to selection of acorresponding story icon 631/633. In some such embodiments, informationautomatically transmitted by the application server 112 to the clientdevice 102 upon initial rendering of a map view in the map GUI 612 caninclude a first few (e.g., 2 or 3) snaps for each of the story icons631, 633 surfaced in the map viewport 621. Upon selection of aparticular story icon 631/633, the first few snaps in the story areimmediately available for replay, with the subsequent snaps in the storybeing pulled from the application server 112 during presentation of thefirst few snaps.

The system 2000 also includes a content management system (CMS) 2024enabling server-side administrative functionalities. The CMS 2024provides an administration interface enabling operators to managecontent, for example by defining various attributes of different placeand/or event stories. The CMS 2024 in this example embodiment alsoincludes the collection management system 204 (FIG. 2 ) as previouslydescribed. The CMS 2024 is configured for the automated or semiautomatedcompilation of the respective social media galleries or stories aspreviously described. This may include curation or moderation ofrespective stories by use of a server-side curation interface providedby the CMS 2024.

The system 2000 further includes a search engine 2033 configured toprovide search functionalities with respect to social media content viathe map GUI 612. In particular, the search engine 2033 in this exampleembodiment provides for user-directed searching both via the searchinterface 1010 (FIGS. 10A-10D) and via location-based searching bydirect selection of a target location on the map 618 (FIGS. 11A-11B).

The system 2000 further includes a user location serving mechanism 2037configured to determine respective user locations, in this exampleembodiment indicated by the respective device locations, to determinefor each user the particular friend users who are viewable via the mapGUI 612, and to provide the respective user location information fordisplay of associated user icons at corresponding display locations. Theuser location serving mechanism 2037 in some embodiments comprise, aspart of the server system 108, a user location datastore and a per-useraccess control list (ACL) that lists the particular friend usersviewable by each user. In some embodiments, the per-user ACL specifiesrespective viewing level granularity for each viewable user. The userlocation serving mechanism 2037 in such example embodiments isadditionally configured to determine and manage respective user displaygranularity. This includes calculating non-precise display locations forsome users, and causing display of a corresponding user icons at thenon-precise display locations.

The system 2000 also includes an analyzer 2050 that is configured toprocess social media activity data to calculate anomality metric valuesfor different areas that is to be served by the map GUI 612. In someembodiments, the analyzer 2050 generates a historical model of thegeospatial distribution of social media activity, using a probabilisticrendering of individual snaps. Activity data from a current or near livetime window is mapped to the historical model and a respective anomalityscore for different respective locations in the map is calculated. Suchanomality scores can be used by the map engine 2008 to surface content,to determine the size of spike icons 633, and the rendering of heatmapinformation, or the like.

Machine and Software Architecture

These systems, system components, methods, applications, and so forthdescribed in conjunction with FIGS. 1-20 are implemented in someembodiments in the context of a machine and an associated softwarearchitecture. The sections below describe representative softwarearchitecture(s) and machine (e.g., hardware) architecture(s) that aresuitable for use with the disclosed embodiments.

Software architectures are used in conjunction with hardwarearchitectures to create devices and machines configured for particularpurposes. For example, a particular hardware architecture coupled with aparticular software architecture will create a mobile device, such as amobile phone, tablet device, or so forth. A slightly different hardwareand software architecture may yield a smart device for use in the“internet of things,” while yet another combination produces a servercomputer for use within a cloud computing architecture. The software andhardware architectures presented here are example architectures forimplementing the disclosure, and are not exhaustive as to possiblearchitectures that can be employed for implementing the disclosure.

Recapitulation of Selected Example Embodiments

From the preceding description it will be seen that a number of exampleembodiments and combinations of example embodiments are disclosed. Thedisclosed embodiments include, but are not limited to, the enumeratedlist of example embodiments that follow.

Example 1: A method comprising:

-   at a server system for a social media platform, assigning an    availability parameter to a defined geographical area, the assigned    availability parameter being different from a default availability    parameter that is by default associated with multiple geographical    areas managed by the server system;-   causing generation of a map-based graphical user interface (GUI) on    a user device, the map-based GUI having an interactive map providing    access to geo-tagged social media items, each geo-tagged social    media item having an associated geographical location; and-   based at least in part on the assigned availability parameter,    making available for viewing via the map-based GUI social media    content uploaded to the social media platform, such that    availability of each social media item having an associated    geographic location corresponding to the defined geographical area    is automatically restricted based on the assigned availability    parameter.

Example 2: The method of example 1, wherein the making available of thesocial media content comprises filtering the social media content toexclude each social media item having a geographic locationcorresponding to the defined geographical area.

Example 3: The method of example 2, wherein the filtering comprises, foreach of multiple social media items comprising the social media content:

-   identifying the geographical location of the social media item based    on geo-tagging information associated therewith;-   identifying a particular one of multiple defined geographical areas    within which the identified geographic location falls;-   identifying the respective availability parameter associated with    the identified defined geographical area; and-   determining an availability status of the social media item based on    the identified availability parameter.

Example 4: The method of any one of examples 1-3, wherein the assignedavailability parameter indicates exclusion from availability, such thatany social media item with a geographical location within the definedgeographical area is excluded from availability via the map-based GUIfor all users.

Example 5: The method of any one of examples 1-3, wherein the assignedavailability parameter indicates conditional exclusion based on one ormore user attributes, such that availability via the map-based GUI ofeach social media item having a geographic location within the definedgeographical area is variable dependent on the one or more attributes ofa user associated with the user device.

Example 6: The method of example 5, wherein the availability parameterindicates an age restriction value.

Example 7: The method of example 6, wherein the making available of thesocial media content comprises, for each social media item having ageographical location within the defined geographical area: determiningan age value of the user associated with the user device; and

-   making the social media item accessible via the map-based GUI    conditional upon the age value of the user being greater than a    threshold age indicated by the age restriction value associated with    the defined geographical area.

Example 8: The method of any one of examples 1-7, further comprising:

-   at the server system, providing a curation interface enabling    management of multiple defined geographical areas, wherein the    assigning of the availability parameter to the defined geographical    area is responsive to selective user input by a human operator via    the curation interface.

Example 9: The method of example 8, further comprising enablingdefinition of the geographical area by the human operator via thecuration interface.

Example 10: The method of any one of examples 1-9, wherein the assigningof the availability parameter is performed in an automated procedurebased at least in part on user reports received with respect to socialmedia items originating from the defined geographical area.

Example 11: A system comprising: one or more computer processor devices;and

-   one or more memories having stored thereon machine-readable    instructions that, when executed, configure the one or more computer    processor devices to perform operations comprising:    -   at a server system for a social media platform, assigning an        availability parameter to a defined geographical area, the        assigned availability parameter being different from a default        availability parameter that is by default associated with        multiple geographical areas managed by the server system;    -   causing generation of a map-based graphical user interface (GUI)        on a user device, the map-based GUI having an interactive map        providing access to geo-tagged social media items, each        geo-tagged social media item having an associated geographical        location; and    -   based at least in part on the assigned availability parameter,        making available for viewing via the map-based GUI social media        content uploaded to the social media platform, such that        availability of each social media item having an associated        geographic location corresponding to the defined geographical        area is restricted based on the assigned availability parameter.

Example 12: The system of example 11, wherein the making available ofthe social media content comprises filtering the social media content toexclude each social media item having a geographic locationcorresponding to the defined geographical area.

Example 13: The system of example 12, wherein the instructions configurethe one or more computer processor devices to filter the social mediacontent in a process comprising, for each of multiple social media itemscomprising the social media content:

-   identifying the geographical location of the social media item based    on geo-tagging information associated therewith;-   identifying a particular one of multiple defined geographical areas    within which the identified geographic location falls;-   identifying the respective availability parameter associated with    the identified defined geographical area; and-   determining an availability status of the social media item based on    the identified availability parameter.

Example 14: The system of any one of examples 11-13, wherein theassigned availability parameter indicates exclusion from availability,such that any social media item with a geographical location within thedefined geographical area is excluded from availability via themap-based GUI for all users.

Example 15: The system of any one of examples 11-13, wherein theassigned availability parameter indicates conditional exclusion based onone or more user

attributes, such that availability via the map-based GUI of each socialmedia item having a geographic location within the defined geographicalarea is variable dependent on the one or more attributes of a userassociated with the user device.

Example 16: The system of example 15, wherein the availability parameterindicates an age restriction value.

Example 17: The system of example 16, wherein the instructions configurethe one or more computer processor devices to make the social mediacontent available in a process comprising, for each social media itemhaving a geographical location within the defined geographical area:

-   determining an age value of the user associated with the user    device; and-   making the social media item accessible via the map-based GUI    conditional upon the age value of the user being greater than a    threshold age indicated by the age restriction value associated with    the defined geographical area.

Example 18: The system of examples 11-17, wherein the instructionsfurther configure the one or more computer processor devices to:

-   at the server system, provide a curation interface enabling    management of multiple defined geographical areas, wherein the    assigning of the availability parameter to the defined geographical    area is responsive to selective user input by a human operator via    the curation interface.

Example 19: The system of examples 11-18, wherein the instructionsconfigure the one or more computer processor devices such that theassigning of the availability parameter is performed in an automatedprocedure based at least in part on user reports received with respectto social media items originating from the defined geographical area.

Example 20: A computer readable storage medium having stored thereoninstructions that cause the machine, when executing the instructions, toperform operations comprising:

-   at a server system for a social media platform, assigning an    availability parameter to a defined geographical area, the assigned    availability parameter being different from a default availability    parameter that is by default associated with multiple geographical    areas managed by the server system;-   causing generation of a map-based graphical user interface (GUI) on    a user device, the map-based GUI having an interactive map providing    access to geo-tagged social media items, each geo-tagged social    media item having an associated geographical location; and-   based at least in part on the assigned availability parameter,    making available for viewing via the map-based GUI social media    content uploaded to the social media platform, such that    availability of each social media item having an associated    geographic location corresponding to the defined geographical area    is automatically restricted based on the assigned availability    parameter.

Example 21: A method comprising: at a server system for a social mediaplatform, defining multiple geographical areas;

-   associating a respective catchment interval with each of the    multiple geographical areas, such that at least two different    geographical areas have different respective catchment intervals;    and-   making available for user access via the social media platform a set    of ephemeral social media items, each of which has:    -   respective geo-tag information indicating a corresponding        geographic location; and    -   a respective timestamp, an age value of the ephemeral social        media item being indicated by a time elapsed since the        corresponding timestamp;-   wherein the set of ephemeral social media items is limited to items    for which the respective age value is smaller than the applicable    catchment interval, the applicable catchment interval being, for    each item, the catchment interval of that one of the multiple    geographical areas which corresponds to the respective geographic    location of the item.

Example 22: The method of example 21, further comprising: by defaultassigning a default catchment interval to geographical areas; and

-   assigning a modified catchment interval to a particular geographical    area, the modified catchment interval being different from the    default catchment interval.

Example 23: The method of example 22, further comprising:

-   enabling generation of a map-based graphical user interface (GUI)    for the social media platform on a user device, the map-based GUI    having an interactive map via which geo-tagged social media content    is accessible on the user device;-   receiving a user request via the map-based GUI to access social    media items associated with the particular geographic area; and-   responsive to the user request, causing display, in association with    the particular geographic area of the interactive map, of a    plurality of social media items selected from the set of ephemeral    social media items, the plurality of social media items being    limited to items which:    -   have a geotag-indicated geographic location that falls within        the particular geographic area; and    -   have an age value smaller than the modified catchment interval.

Example 24: The method of example 23, wherein the modified catchmentinterval is longer than the default catchment interval.

Example 25: The method of example 23, wherein the modified catchmentinterval is shorter than the default catchment interval.

Example 26: The method of any one of examples 23-25, further comprising:

-   causing display in the map of social media activity information that    indicates an underlying social media activity metric for with the    particular geographic area,-   wherein social media items upon which the underlying social media    activity metric is based are limited to items having respective age    values smaller than the modified catchment interval.

Example 27: The method of any one of examples 23-25, further comprising:

-   causing display in the map of social media activity information that    indicates an underlying social media activity metric for the    particular geographic area;-   wherein the method further comprises calculating the underlying    social media activity metric similarly for different geographical    areas, without regard to differences between respective catchment    intervals.

Example 28: The method of any one of examples 23-27, wherein assignmentof the modified catchment interval is by operator input received via acuration interface generated by the server system.

Example 29: The method of any one of examples 23-27, wherein theassigning of the modified catchment interval comprises an at leastpartially automated procedure, being based on automated identificationof candidates for catchment interval variation based on predefinedsocial media activity metrics.

Example 30: A system comprising: one or more computer processor devices;and

-   one or more memories having stored thereon computer-readable    instructions that configure the one or more computer processor    devices, when executing the instructions, to perform operations    comprising the method of any one of examples 21-29.

Example 31: A computer readable storage medium having stored thereoninstructions for causing a machine, when executing the instructions, toperform operations comprising the method of any one of examples 21-29.

Example 32: A method comprising:

-   accessing multiple social media items posted to a social media    platform for general availability via the social media platform,    each social media item comprising visual media content;-   in an automated procedure performed using an quality assessment    system comprising one or more computer processor devices configured    to perform automated procedure, generating for each of the multiple    social media items a respective quality estimate value; and-   making available for online viewing on the social media platform by    respective user devices a subset of the multiple social media items,    one or more of the multiple social media items being excluded from    the subset of items based on their respective quality estimate    values.

Example 33: The method of example 32, further comprising:

-   in an automated operation performed using one or more computer    devices configured to perform the automated procedure, determining    for each of the multiple social media items a respective    acceptability status based at least in part on the corresponding    quality estimate value; and-   excluding the one or more social media items from availability via    social media platform based on their respective acceptability    statuses.

Example 34: The method of any one of examples 32 or 33, furthercomprising forming the subset of social media items by excluding fromavailability each of the multiple social media items having a respectivequality estimate value lower than a predefined threshold value.

Example 35: The method of any one of examples 32-34, wherein, for eachsocial media item, the generating of the corresponding quality estimatevalue is based at least in part on generating a content quality scorewith respect to the visual media content of the social media item.

Example 36: The method of example 35, wherein the generating of thecontent quality scores is performed using a trained artificial neuralnetwork.

Example 37: The method of example 36, further comprising the prioroperation of training the neural network by feeding to the artificialneural network training data pertaining to multiple historical socialmedia items, the training data for each historical social media itemcomprising corresponding visual media content together with anassociated quality label.

Example 38: The method of example 37, where in the quality labels arebinary, indicating the visual media content of each respectivehistorical social media item as being either acceptable or unacceptable.

Example 39: The method of any one of examples 32-38, wherein thegenerating of the quality estimate value is based at least in part onmetadata captured with respect to one or more device attributes of auser device by which the visual media content of the respective socialmedia item was captured.

Example 40: The method of example 39, wherein the one or more deviceattributes includes metadata indicating which camera of the user devicecaptured the corresponding visual media content.

Example 41: The method of example 39 or example 40, wherein the one ormore device attributes includes movement data indicating speed ofmovement of the user device during image-capture.

Example 42: The method of any one of examples 39-41, wherein the one ormore device attributes includes altitude data indicating device altitudeduring image-capture.

Example 43: The method of any one of examples 39-42, wherein the one ormore device attributes includes image shakiness indicated byaccelerometer data of the user device during image-capture.

Example 44: A system comprising: one or more computer processor devices;and

-   one or more memory devices having stored thereon instructions that    configure the one or more computer processor devices, when executing    the instructions, to perform operations comprising the method of any    one of examples 32-43.

Example 45: A non-transitory computer readable medium having storedthereon instructions for causing a machine, when executing theinstructions, to perform operations comprising the method of any one ofexamples 32-43.

Example 46: A method comprising:

-   causing display of a map-based graphical user interface (GUI) for a    social media platform on a user device associated with a particular    user, the map-based GUI including enabling user navigation to    display a target geographical area; and-   providing access via the interactive map to geotagged historical    social media content previously uploaded by the particular user.

Example 47: The method of example 46, wherein the historical socialmedia content comprises expired ephemeral social media items.

Example 48: The method of example 46 or example 47, wherein themap-based GUI is selectively switchable between:

-   a default mode in which the map-based GUI provides access to social    media content uploaded by multiple other users; and-   a historical mode in which the map-based GUI provides access    exclusively to the geo-tagged historical social media content    previously uploaded by the particular user.

Example 49: The method of any one of examples 46-49, further comprising:

-   receiving via the map-based GUI a search query for historical social    media content posted by the particular user, the search query    including a geographical constraint; and-   based on the search query, identifying a result set that comprises a    plurality of social media items previously uploaded by the    particular user and having associated geotag data that satisfy the    geographical constraint; and causing display on the user device of    the identified the result set.

Example 50: The method of example 49, wherein the geographicalconstraint comprises that geo-tag information of social media itemsincluded in the result set fall within a specified geographical area.

Example 51: The method of example 50, wherein the specified geographicalarea corresponds to an area displayed in a map viewport of the map-basedGUI.

Example 52: The method of example 50, wherein the specified geographicalarea is defined based on a target location indicated by user interactionwith the interactive map.

Example 53: The method of any one of examples 46-52, further comprisingcausing display on a map of the map-based GUI of geographicallydistributed social media activity information with respect to thegeo-tagged historical social media content previously uploaded by theparticular user.

Example 54: The method of example 53, where in the geographicallydistributed social media activity information comprises a heat mapindicating geographical distribution of an activity metric for thehistorical social media content of the particular user.

Example 55: The method of example 54, wherein the activity metric isbased at least in part on a density metric of the historical geo-taggedsocial media content of the particular user.

Example 56: A system comprising:

-   one or more computer processor devices:-   one or more memory devices having stored thereon instructions that    configure the one or more computer processor devices, when executing    the instructions, to perform operations comprising the method of any    one of examples 46-55.

Example 57: A non-transitory computer readable storage medium havingstored thereon instructions for causing a machine, when executing theinstructions, to perform operations comprising the method of any one ofexamples 46-55.

Software Architecture

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating an example software architecture2106, which may be used in conjunction with various hardwarearchitectures herein described. FIG. 21 is a non-limiting example of asoftware architecture, and it will be appreciated that many otherarchitectures may be implemented to facilitate the functionalitydescribed herein. The software architecture 2106 may execute on hardwaresuch as a machine 2200 of FIG. 22 that includes, among other things,processors 2204, memory 2214, and I/O components 2218. A representativehardware layer 2152 is illustrated and can represent, for example, themachine 2200 of FIG. 22 . The representative hardware layer 2152includes a processing unit 2154 having associated executableinstructions 2104. The executable instructions 2104 represent theexecutable instructions of the software architecture 2106, includingimplementation of the methods, components, and so forth describedherein. The hardware layer 2152 also includes memory and/or storagemodules memory/storage 2156, which also have the executable instructions2104. The hardware layer 2152 may also comprise other hardware 2158.

In the example architecture of FIG. 21 , the software architecture 2106may be conceptualized as a stack of layers where each layer providesparticular functionality. For example, the software architecture 2106may include layers such as an operating system 2102, libraries 2120,frameworks/middleware 2118, applications 2116, and a presentation layer2114. Operationally, the applications 2116 and/or other componentswithin the layers may invoke application programming interface (API)calls 2108 through the software stack and receive a response in the formof messages 2108. The layers illustrated are representative in nature,and not all software architectures have all layers. For example, somemobile or special-purpose operating systems may not provide aframeworks/middleware 2118, while others may provide such a layer. Othersoftware architectures may include additional or different layers.

The operating system 2102 may manage hardware resources and providecommon services. The operating system 2102 may include, for example, akernel 2122, services 2124, and drivers 2126. The kernel 2122 may act asan abstraction layer between the hardware and the other software layers.For example, the kernel 2122 may be responsible for memory management,processor management (e.g., scheduling), component management,networking, security settings, and so on. The services 2124 may provideother common services for the other software layers. The drivers 2126are responsible for controlling or interfacing with the underlyinghardware. For instance, the drivers 2126 include display drivers, cameradrivers, Bluetooth® drivers, flash memory drivers, serial communicationdrivers (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB) drivers), Wi-Fi® drivers,audio drivers, power management drivers, and so forth depending on thehardware configuration.

The libraries 2120 provide a common infrastructure that is used by theapplications 2116 and/or other components and/or layers. The libraries2120 provide functionality that allows other software components toperform tasks in an easier fashion than by interfacing directly with theunderlying operating system 2102 functionality (e.g., kernel 2122,services 2124, and/or drivers 2126). The libraries 2120 may includesystem libraries 2144 (e.g., C standard library) that may providefunctions such as memory allocation functions, string manipulationfunctions, mathematical functions, and the like. In addition, thelibraries 2120 may include API libraries 2146 such as media libraries(e.g., libraries to support presentation and manipulation of variousmedia formats such as MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG), graphicslibraries (e.g., an OpenGL framework that may be used to render 2D and3D graphic content on a display), database libraries (e.g., SQLite thatmay provide various relational database functions), web libraries (e.g.,WebKit that may provide web browsing functionality), and the like. Thelibraries 2120 may also include a wide variety of other libraries 2148to provide many other APIs to the applications 2116 and other softwarecomponents/modules.

The frameworks/middleware 2118 provides a higher-level commoninfrastructure that may be used by the applications 2116 and/or othersoftware components/modules. For example, the frameworks/middleware 2118may provide various graphic user interface (GUI) functions, high-levelresource management, high-level location services, and so forth. Theframeworks/middleware 2118 may provide a broad spectrum of other APIsthat may be utilized by the applications 2116 and/or other softwarecomponents/modules, some of which may be specific to a particularoperating system 2102 or platform.

The applications 2116 include built-in applications 2138 and/orthird-party applications 2140. Examples of representative built-inapplications 2138 may include, but are not limited to, a contactsapplication, a browser application, a book reader application, alocation application, a media application, a messaging application,and/or a game application. The third-party applications 2140 may includean application developed using the ANDROIDTM or IOSTM softwaredevelopment kit (SDK) by an entity other than the vendor of theparticular platform, and may be mobile software running on a mobileoperating system such as IOSTM ANDROIDTM, WINDOWS® Phone, or othermobile operating systems. The third-party applications 2140 may invokethe API calls 2108 provided by the mobile operating system (such as theoperating system 2102) to facilitate functionality described herein.

The applications 2116 may use built-in operating system 2102 functions(e.g., kernel 2122, services 2124, and/or drivers 2126), libraries 2120,and frameworks/middleware 2118 to create user interfaces to interactwith users of the system. Alternatively, or additionally, in somesystems interactions with a user may occur through a presentation layer,such as the presentation layer 2114. In these systems, theapplication/component “logic” can be separated from the aspects of theapplication/component that interact with a user.

Hardware Architecture

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine 2200,according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) andperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.Specifically, FIG. 22 shows a diagrammatic representation of the machine2200 in the example form of a computer system, within which instructions2210 (e.g., software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, orother executable code) for causing the machine 2200 to perform any oneor more of the methodologies discussed herein may be executed. As such,the instructions 2210 may be used to implement modules or componentsdescribed herein. The instructions 2210 transform the general,non-programmed machine 2200 into a particular machine 2200 programmed tocarry out the described and illustrated functions in the mannerdescribed. In alternative embodiments, the machine 2200 operates as astandalone device or may be coupled (e.g., networked) to other machines.In a networked deployment, the machine 2200 may operate in the capacityof a server machine or a client machine in a server-client networkenvironment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed)network environment. The machine 2200 may comprise, but not be limitedto, a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), atablet computer, a laptop computer, a netbook, a set-top box (STB), apersonal digital assistant (PDA), an entertainment media system, acellular telephone, a smart phone, a mobile device, a wearable device(e.g., a smart watch), a smart home device (e.g., a smart appliance),other smart devices, a web appliance, a network router, a networkswitch, a network bridge, or any machine capable of executing theinstructions 2210, sequentially or otherwise, that specify actions to betaken by the machine 2200. Further, while only a single machine 2200 isillustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include acollection of machines that individually or jointly execute theinstructions 2210 to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

The machine 2200 may include processors 2204, memory/storage 2206, andI/O components 2218, which may be configured to communicate with eachother such as via a bus 2202. The memory/storage 2206 may include amemory 2214, such as a main memory, or other memory storage, and astorage unit 2216, both accessible to the processors 2204 such as viathe bus 2202. The storage unit 2216 and memory 2214 store theinstructions 2210 embodying any one or more of the methodologies orfunctions described herein. The instructions 2210 may also reside,completely or partially, within the memory 2214, within the storage unit2216, within at least one of the processors 2204 (e.g., within theprocessor's cache memory), or any suitable combination thereof, duringexecution thereof by the machine 2200. Accordingly, the memory 2214, thestorage unit 2216, and the memory of the processors 2204 are examples ofmachine-readable media. In some embodiments, the processors 2204comprise a number of distributed processors 2208-2212, each of whichhave access to associated memories storing instructions 2210.

The I/O components 2218 may include a wide variety of components toreceive input, provide output, produce output, transmit information,exchange information, capture measurements, and so on. The specific I/Ocomponents 2218 that are included in a particular machine 2200 willdepend on the type of machine. For example, portable machines such asmobile phones will likely include a touch input device or other suchinput mechanisms, while a headless server machine will likely notinclude such a touch input device. It will be appreciated that the I/Ocomponents 2218 may include many other components that are not shown inFIG. 22 . The I/O components 2218 are grouped according to functionalitymerely for simplifying the following discussion, and the grouping is inno way limiting. In various example embodiments, the I/O components 2218may include output components 2226 and input components 2228. The outputcomponents 2226 may include visual components (e.g., a display such as aplasma display panel (PDP), a light-emitting diode (LED) display, aliquid crystal display (LCD), a projector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)),acoustic components (e.g., speakers), haptic components (e.g., avibratory motor, resistance mechanisms), other signal generators, and soforth. The input components 2228 may include alphanumeric inputcomponents (e.g., a keyboard, a touchscreen configured to receivealphanumeric input, a photo-optical keyboard, or other alphanumericinput components), point-based input components (e.g., a mouse, atouchpad, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointinginstruments), tactile input components (e.g., a physical button, atouchscreen that provides location and/or force of touches or touchgestures, or other tactile input components), audio input components(e.g., a microphone), and the like.

In further example embodiments, the I/O components 2218 may includebiometric components 2230, motion components 2234, environmentcomponents 2236, or position components 2238 among a wide array of othercomponents. For example, the biometric components 2230 may includecomponents to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions, facialexpressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye tracking), measurebiosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature,perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voiceidentification, retinal identification, facial identification,fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram-basedidentification), and the like. The motion components 2234 may includeacceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensorcomponents, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth.The environment components 2236 may include, for example, illuminationsensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components(e.g., one or more thermometers that detect ambient temperature),humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g.,barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphonesthat detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g.,infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensors (e.g., gassensors to detect concentrations of hazardous gases for safety or tomeasure pollutants in the atmosphere), or other components that mayprovide indications, measurements, or signals corresponding to asurrounding physical environment. The position components 2238 mayinclude location sensor components (e.g., a Global Positioning System(GPS) receiver component), altitude sensor components (e.g., altimetersor barometers that detect air pressure from which altitude may bederived), orientation sensor components (e.g., magnetometers), and thelike.

Communication may be implemented using a wide variety of technologies.The I/O components 2218 may include communication components 2240operable to couple the machine 2200 to a network 2232 or devices 2220via a coupling 2224 and a coupling 2222 respectively. For example, thecommunication components 2240 may include a network interface componentor other suitable device to interface with the network 2232. In furtherexamples, the communication components 2240 may include wiredcommunication components, wireless communication components, cellularcommunication components, Near Field Communication (NFC) components,Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components,and other communication components to provide communication via othermodalities. The devices 2220 may be another machine or any of a widevariety of peripheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupled via aUniversal Serial Bus (USB)).

Moreover, the communication components 2240 may detect identifiers orinclude components operable to detect identifiers. For example, thecommunication components 2240 may include Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detection components,optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detectone-dimensional bar codes such as Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code,multi-dimensional bar codes such as Quick Response (QR) code, Azteccode, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code, UCC RSS-2Dbar code, and other optical codes), or acoustic detection components(e.g., microphones to identify tagged audio signals). In addition, avariety of information may be derived via the communication components2240, such as location via Internet Protocol (IP) geolocation, locationvia Wi-Fi® signal triangulation, location via detecting an NFC beaconsignal that may indicate a particular location, and so forth.

Glossary

“CARRIER SIGNAL” in this context refers to any intangible medium that iscapable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution bythe machine, and includes digital or analog communications signals orother intangible media to facilitate communication of such instructions.Instructions may be transmitted or received over the network using atransmission medium via a network interface device and using any one ofa number of well-known transfer protocols.

“CLIENT DEVICE” in this context refers to any machine that interfaces toa communications network to obtain resources from one or more serversystems or other client devices. A client device may be, but is notlimited to, a mobile phone, desktop computer, laptop, portable digitalassistant (PDA), smart phone, tablet, ultra book, netbook, laptop,multi-processor system, microprocessor-based or programmable consumerelectronic system, game console, set-top box, or any other communicationdevice that a user may use to access a network.

“COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK” in this context refers to one or more portionsof a network that may be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, avirtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wirelessLAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), ametropolitan area network (MAN), the Internet, a portion of theInternet, a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), aplain old telephone service (POTS) network, a cellular telephonenetwork, a wireless network, a Wi-Fi® network, another type of network,or a combination of two or more such networks. For example, a network ora portion of a network may include a wireless or cellular network, andthe coupling may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) connection, aGlobal System for Mobile communications (GSM) connection, or anothertype of cellular or wireless coupling. In this example, the coupling mayimplement any of a variety of types of data transfer technology, such asSingle Carrier Radio Transmission Technology (1xRTT), Evolution-DataOptimized (EVDO) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)technology, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology,third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) including 3G, fourthgeneration wireless (4G) networks, Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (UMTS), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Long-Term Evolution (LTE)standard, others defined by various standard-setting organizations,other long-range protocols, or other data-transfer technology.

“ElVIPHEMERAL MESSAGE” in this context refers to a message that isaccessible for a time-limited duration. An ephemeral message may be atext, an image, a video and the like. The access time for the ephemeralmessage may be set by the message sender. Alternatively, the access timemay be a default setting or a setting specified by the recipient.Regardless of the setting technique, the message is transitory. “Snaps”as referenced in the description are ephemeral messages. Ephemeralmessages are not limited to communications having specified individualrecipients, but include social media items uploaded to a gallery or acollection for viewing by multiple users. Thus, the term ephemeralmessage includes a photo or video clip (which may be augmented orunaugmented) made available for a time-limited duration for viewingpublic or by a

“MACHINE-READABLE MEDIUM” in this context refers to a component, adevice, or other tangible media able to store instructions and datatemporarily or permanently and may include, but is not limited to,random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), buffer memory, flashmemory, optical media, magnetic media, cache memory, other types ofstorage (e.g., Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM)), and/orany suitable combination thereof. The term “machine-readable medium”should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., acentralized or distributed database, or associated caches and servers)able to store instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shallalso be taken to include any medium, or combination of multiple media,that is capable of storing instructions (e.g., code) for execution by amachine, such that the instructions, when executed by one or moreprocessors of the machine, cause the machine to perform any one or moreof the methodologies described herein. Accordingly, a “machine-readablemedium” refers to a single storage apparatus or device, as well as“cloud-based” storage systems or storage networks that include multiplestorage apparatus or devices. The term “machine-readable medium”excludes signals per se.

“COMPONENT” in this context refers to a device, a physical entity, orlogic having boundaries defined by function or subroutine calls, branchpoints, application programming interfaces (APIs), or other technologiesthat provide for the partitioning or modularization of particularprocessing or control functions. Components may be combined via theirinterfaces with other components to carry out a machine process. Acomponent may be a packaged functional hardware unit designed for usewith other components and a part of a program that usually performs aparticular function of related functions. Components may constituteeither software components (e.g., code embodied on a machine-readablemedium) or hardware components. A “hardware component” is a tangibleunit capable of performing certain operations and may be configured orarranged in a certain physical manner. In various example embodiments,one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone computer system, aclient computer system, or a server computer system) or one or morehardware components of a computer system (e.g., a processor or a groupof processors) may be configured by software (e.g., an application orapplication portion) as a hardware component that operates to performcertain operations as described herein. A hardware component may also beimplemented mechanically, electronically, or any suitable combinationthereof. For example, a hardware component may include dedicatedcircuitry or logic that is permanently configured to perform certainoperations. A hardware component may be a special-purpose processor,such as a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or anApplication-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). A hardware component mayalso include programmable logic or circuitry that is temporarilyconfigured by software to perform certain operations. For example, ahardware component may include software executed by a general-purposeprocessor or other programmable processor. Once configured by suchsoftware, hardware components become specific machines (or specificcomponents of a machine) uniquely tailored to perform the configuredfunctions and are no longer general-purpose processors. It will beappreciated that the decision to implement a hardware componentmechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or intemporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may bedriven by cost and time considerations. Accordingly, the phrase“hardware component” (or “hardware-implemented component”) should beunderstood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that isphysically constructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), ortemporarily configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manneror to perform certain operations described herein. Consideringembodiments in which hardware components are temporarily configured(e.g., programmed), each of the hardware components need not beconfigured or instantiated at any one instance in time. For example,where a hardware component comprises a general-purpose processorconfigured by software to become a special-purpose processor, thegeneral-purpose processor may be configured as respectively differentspecial-purpose processors (e.g., comprising different hardwarecomponents) at different times. Software accordingly configures aparticular processor or processors, for example, to constitute aparticular hardware component at one instance of time and to constitutea different hardware component at a different instance of time. Hardwarecomponents can provide information to, and receive information from,other hardware components. Accordingly, the described hardwarecomponents may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Wheremultiple hardware components exist contemporaneously, communications maybe achieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuitsand buses) between or among two or more of the hardware components. Inembodiments in which multiple hardware components are configured orinstantiated at different times, communications between such hardwarecomponents may be achieved, for example, through the storage andretrieval of information in memory structures to which the multiplehardware components have access. For example, one hardware component mayperform an operation and store the output of that operation in a memorydevice to which it is communicatively coupled. A further hardwarecomponent may then, at a later time, access the memory device toretrieve and process the stored output. Hardware components may alsoinitiate communications with input or output devices, and can operate ona resource (e.g., a collection of information). The various operationsof example methods described herein may be performed, at leastpartially, by one or more processors that are temporarily configured(e.g., by software) or permanently configured to perform the relevantoperations. Whether temporarily or permanently configured, suchprocessors may constitute processor-implemented components that operateto perform one or more operations or functions described herein. As usedherein, “processor-implemented component” refers to a hardware componentimplemented using one or more processors. Similarly, the methodsdescribed herein may be at least partially processor-implemented, with aparticular processor or processors being an example of hardware. Forexample, at least some of the operations of a method may be performed byone or more processors or processor-implemented components. Moreover,the one or more processors may also operate to support performance ofthe relevant operations in a “cloud computing” environment or as a“software as a service” (SaaS). For example, at least some of theoperations may be performed by a group of computers (as examples ofmachines including processors), with these operations being accessiblevia a network (e.g., the Internet) and via one or more appropriateinterfaces (e.g., an application programming interface (API)). Theperformance of certain of the operations may be distributed among theprocessors, not only residing within a single machine, but deployedacross a number of machines. In some example embodiments, the processorsor processor-implemented components may be located in a singlegeographic location (e.g., within a home environment, an officeenvironment, or a server farm). In other example embodiments, theprocessors or processor-implemented components may be distributed acrossa number of geographic locations.

“PROCESSOR” in this context refers to any circuit or virtual circuit (aphysical circuit emulated by logic executing on an actual processor)that manipulates data values according to control signals (e.g.,“commands,” “op codes,” “machine code,” etc.) and which producescorresponding output signals that are applied to operate a machine. Aprocessor may, for example, be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), aReduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a ComplexInstruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit(GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application-SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC), a Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC),or any combination thereof. A processor may further be a multi-coreprocessor having two or more independent processors (sometimes referredto as “cores”) that may execute instructions contemporaneously.

“TIMESTAMP” in this context refers to a sequence of characters orencoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, forexample giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a smallfraction of a second.

Language

Throughout this specification, plural instances may implementcomponents, operations, or structures described as a single instance.Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustratedand described as separate operations, one or more of the individualoperations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that theoperations be performed in the order illustrated, unless that thecontext and/or logic clearly indicates otherwise. Structures andfunctionality presented as separate components in example configurationsmay be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly,structures and functionality presented as a single component may beimplemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

Although an overview of the disclosed subject matter has been describedwith reference to specific example embodiments, various modificationsand changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader scope of embodiments of the present disclosure.

The embodiments illustrated herein are described in sufficient detail toenable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed.Other embodiments may be used and derived therefrom, such thatstructural and logical substitutions and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of this disclosure. The Detailed Description,therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope ofvarious embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along withthe full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

As used herein, the term “or” may be construed in either an inclusive orexclusive sense. Moreover, plural instances may be provided forresources, operations, or structures described herein as a singleinstance. Additionally, boundaries between various resources,operations, modules, engines, and data stores are somewhat arbitrary,and particular operations are illustrated in a context of specificillustrative configurations. The specification and drawings are,accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictivesense.

1. (canceled)
 2. A method comprising: at a server system for a socialmedia platform, defining multiple geographical areas; associating arespective catchment interval with each of the multiple geographicalareas, such that at least two different geographical areas havedifferent respective catchment intervals; and making available for useraccess via the social media platform a set of ephemeral social mediaitems, each of which has: respective geo-tag information indicating acorresponding geographic location; and a respective timestamp, an agevalue of the ephemeral social media item being indicated by a timeelapsed since the corresponding timestamp; wherein the set of ephemeralsocial media items is limited to items for which the respective agevalue is smaller than the applicable catchment interval, the applicablecatchment interval being, for each item, the catchment interval of thatone of the multiple geographical areas which corresponds to therespective geographic location of the item.
 3. The method of claim 2,further comprising: by default assigning a default catchment interval togeographical areas; and assigning a modified catchment interval to aparticular geographical area, the modified catchment interval beingdifferent from the default catchment interval.
 4. The method of claim 3,further comprising: enabling generation of a map-based graphical userinterface (GUI) for the social media platform on a user device, themap-based GUI having an interactive map via which geo-tagged socialmedia content is accessible on the user device; receiving a user requestvia the map-based GUI to access social media items associated with theparticular geographic area; and responsive to the user request, causingdisplay, in association with the particular geographic area of theinteractive map, of a plurality of social media items selected from theset of ephemeral social media items, the plurality of social media itemsbeing limited to items which: have a geotag-indicated geographiclocation that falls within the particular geographic area; and have anage value smaller than the modified catchment interval.
 5. The method ofclaim 4, wherein the modified catchment interval is longer than thedefault catchment interval.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein themodified catchment interval is shorter than the default catchmentinterval.
 7. The method of claim 4, further comprising: causing displayin the map of social media activity information that indicates anunderlying social media activity metric within the particular geographicarea, wherein social media items upon which the underlying social mediaactivity metric is based are limited to items having respective agevalues smaller than the modified catchment interval.
 8. The method ofclaim 4, further comprising: causing display in the map of social mediaactivity information that indicates an underlying social media activitymetric for the particular geographic area; wherein the method furthercomprises calculating the underlying social media activity metricsimilarly for different geographical areas, without regard todifferences between respective catchment intervals.
 9. The method ofclaim 4, wherein assignment of the modified catchment interval is byoperator input received via a curation interface generated by the serversystem.
 10. The method of claim 4, wherein the assigning of the modifiedcatchment interval comprises an at least partially automated procedure,being based on automated identification of candidates for catchmentinterval variation based on predefined social media activity metrics.11. A system comprising: one or more computer processor devices; and oneor more memories having stored thereon computer-readable instructionsthat configure the one or more computer processor devices, whenexecuting the instructions, to perform operations comprising: at aserver system for a social media platform, defining multiplegeographical areas; associating a respective catchment interval witheach of the multiple geographical areas, such that at least twodifferent geographical areas have different respective catchmentintervals; and making available for user access via the social mediaplatform a set of ephemeral social media items, each of which has:respective geo-tag information indicating a corresponding geographiclocation; and a respective timestamp, an age value of the ephemeralsocial media item being indicated by a time elapsed since thecorresponding timestamp; wherein the set of ephemeral social media itemsis limited to items for which the respective age value is smaller thanthe applicable catchment interval, the applicable catchment intervalbeing, for each item, the catchment interval of that one of the multiplegeographical areas which corresponds to the respective geographiclocation of the item.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein theinstructions further configure the one or more computer processordevices to perform operations comprising: by default assigning a defaultcatchment interval to geographical areas; and assigning a modifiedcatchment interval to a particular geographical area, the modifiedcatchment interval being different from the default catchment interval.13. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions further configurethe one or more computer processor devices to perform operationscomprising: enabling generation of a map-based graphical user interface(GUI) for the social media platform on a user device, the map-based GUIhaving an interactive map via which geo-tagged social media content isaccessible on the user device; receiving a user request via themap-based GUI to access social media items associated with theparticular geographic area; and responsive to the user request, causingdisplay, in association with the particular geographic area of theinteractive map, of a plurality of social media items selected from theset of ephemeral social media items, the plurality of social media itemsbeing limited to items which: have a geotag-indicated geographiclocation that falls within the particular geographic area; and have anage value smaller than the modified catchment interval.
 14. The systemof claim 13, wherein the modified catchment interval is longer than thedefault catchment interval.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein themodified catchment interval is shorter than the default catchmentinterval.
 16. The system of claim 14, wherein the instructions furtherconfigure the one or more computer processor devices to performoperations comprising: causing display in the map of social mediaactivity information that indicates an underlying social media activitymetric within the particular geographic area, wherein social media itemsupon which the underlying social media activity metric is based arelimited to items having respective age values smaller than the modifiedcatchment interval.
 17. The system of claim 14, wherein the instructionsfurther configure the one or more computer processor devices to performoperations comprising: causing display in the map of social mediaactivity information that indicates an underlying social media activitymetric for the particular geographic area; and calculating theunderlying social media activity metric similarly for differentgeographical areas, without regard to differences between respectivecatchment intervals.
 18. The system of claim 14, wherein assignment ofthe modified catchment interval is by operator input received via acuration interface generated by the server system.
 19. The system ofclaim 14, wherein the instructions configure the one or more computerprocessor devices such that the assigning of the modified catchmentinterval comprises an at least partially automated procedure, beingbased on automated identification of candidates for catchment intervalvariation based on predefined social media activity metrics.
 20. Acomputer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions forcausing a machine, when executing the instructions, to performoperations comprising: at a server system for a social media platform,defining multiple geographical areas; associating a respective catchmentinterval with each of the multiple geographical areas, such that atleast two different geographical areas have different respectivecatchment intervals; and making available for user access via the socialmedia platform a set of ephemeral social media items, each of which has:respective geo-tag information indicating a corresponding geographiclocation; and a respective timestamp, an age value of the ephemeralsocial media item being indicated by a time elapsed since thecorresponding timestamp; wherein the set of ephemeral social media itemsis limited to items for which the respective age value is smaller thanthe applicable catchment interval, the applicable catchment intervalbeing, for each item, the catchment interval of that one of the multiplegeographical areas which corresponds to the respective geographiclocation of the item.